Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Project (AWATT)

Provinces	Kabul
Program	Alternative Development (Accelerating regional economic growth to provide licit alternatives to poppy production)
Dates	March 2008 - March 2011
Partner
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With 90% of water withdrawals accounted by the agriculture sector, water is undoubtedly critical to Afghanistan’s achieving accelerated agriculture growth. Afghanistan suffers from water shortages because of its limited fresh water resources and the inappropriate use of watersheds, aquifers, and river basins.  The main objective of AWATT is to increase the opportunity for Afghans to access information and knowledge on appropriate technology, provide the tools and mechanisms for policy and institutional changes that would enhance the management of the supply and demand of water resources, and development of a legislative framework for tenure and rights over private and common land in the rural areas.

The program will focus on agricultural extension in two ways.  First, the consortium will work with Afghan ministries and universities to improve the structure of their research and extension systems and to build the capacity of extension services in regional universities.  Second, program activities will work directly with farmer groups throughout the country to introduce and extend appropriate new technologies that will improve agriculture productivity.  The creation of a water basin model through a participatory, nation-wide data gathering effort is another aspect of the program that will have great impact on the water-scarce landscape of Afghanistan.  The end result of these activities, which include issue identification, data collection, model development, presentation of recommendations, and solicitation of stakeholder feedback, will be changes in policies and institutions to improve the management of water resources in Afghanistan.

All Alternative Development activities