Agriculture

Overview Program Description Activities FAQs Photo Gallery

Program Description

Overview

The majority of the Afghan rural population is engaged in agricultural related activities and it is estimated that 80% of Afghans derive their income from agricultural related activities, whether simple agricultural production or some other aspect of the agri-business industry such as processing, transportation, or sales.  However, as the rest of the world improved agricultural production and practices over the past 30 years, Afghanistan fell behind due to war and global isolation. Experts now agree that the majority of Afghan agricultural products cannot compete in the global marketplace.  Therefore, Afghan farmers are relegated to subsistence agriculture or trapped in a poverty cycle that does not allow them to produce the higher value, higher quality products which improve rural livelihoods.  In coordinating efforts to achieve USG objectives in Afghanistan, including stability, economic development, and rule of law, few results will accomplish greater positive impact than rising rural wages and improving livelihoods. 

U.S. foreign assistance will build a productive rural sector and enabling environment to modernize commercial agriculture through high-value crop diversification, productivity, and value-chain enhancements. The long-term goal is to increase commercial agriculture opportunities, improve agricultural productivity, expand agricultural markets, create rural employment and improve family incomes and well being.

USAID’s resources will improve technology, competitiveness, post-harvest activities, and public institutions in the agriculture sector.

The Goal

Agriculture is the most important sector in Afghanistan with about 80% of the country’s population living in rural areas and earning at least some of their livelihood from agriculture and agriculture-related services.  Agriculture has the potential to galvanize economic growth, but growth is not possible if agriculture stagnates.  No country has been able to sustain a rapid transition out of poverty without raising productivity in its agriculture sector.

Consequently, increasing agricultural productivity is a priority for U.S. foreign assistance in order to drive economic growth, thereby reducing poverty.  While achieving growth in the agriculture sector will promote economic growth for Afghanistan as a whole, it will also insure that national growth will benefit the nation’s rural poor.  Moreover, a robust agriculture economy will play a major role in helping to eliminate poppy production and move the country to both economic and political stability. 

The Program

USAID’s agricultural development efforts focus on increasing agricultural productivity and smallholder participation in markets through strategic themes: 

• Expanding global, regional, and domestic trade opportunities and improving the capacity of producers and rural industries to act on them
• Improving the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture
• Mobilizing science and technology and fostering a capacity for innovation
• Strengthening agricultural training and education, outreach, and adaptive research.

USAID builds on successes and lessons-learned while continuing to:

• Rehabilitate irrigation systems and farm-to-market roads
• Work to expand markets and linkages with private sector entrepreneurs
• Strengthen efforts in natural resource management and biodiversity conservation
• Improve rural financial systems
• Promote new agricultural technology to improve crop yields
• Train the new generation of Afghan agricultural scientists and extension specialists
• Build the institutional capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture to plan, implement and manage development programs. 
• Strengthen existing relationships with U.S. land-grant universities and expand alliances with new institutions to ensure Afghans have access to the latest science, technology and expertise. 

USAID strategies and programs are:

• Linked to market trends, at global, regional, national and local levels, and focused on improving competitiveness and efficiency;
• Aggressive with regard to improving natural resource management;
• Innovative and facilitating the development and use of science and technology; and
• Attentive to the needs and capabilities of Afghan farmers and herders, rural communities, vulnerable groups and marginalized people.