Afghanistan Expects 4.7 MMT Harvest

ROME - Aug 6/07 - SNS -- Cereal grain production has more than doubled since 2002 in Afghanistan, rising to an estimated 4.6 million metric tons (MT) this year.

This would represent a 700,000 MT increase over 2006 production but a reduction of nearly the same amount from 2005’s near-record of 5.3 million MT.

On the basis of the harvest forecast, Afghanistan may need to import no more than 700,000 MT of cereals in the 2007-08 marketing season to cover its total requirements. Of this, 600,000 MT would come from commercial purchase on world markets, with the remainder provided as food aid. This compares with total cereal imports of some 1.5 million MT at the start of the decade, of which food aid accounted for more than 20%.

Afghanistan’s success with cereals stems largely from several consecutive years of generally favorable weather, but also from ongoing development efforts by a number of agencies and organizations, including FAO, which employs 400 staff in the country. Current projects include seed industry development, milk production, sugar industry rehabilitation, market information systems, food security and nutrition, bird flu prevention and poppy substitution.

FAO supported projects have already rehabilitated irrigation systems covering 350,000 hectares of cropland and increased milk production by 3 200 hectoliters per year.

Of special importance is the seed project, which benefits from €16 million of financing from the European Union over the 2003-2011 period, and which, building on previous emergency and rehabilitation interventions, has helped to create a commercial Afghani seed industry. In 2006 the sector produced 4,000 MT of seed – mostly high-yielding, disease-tolerant wheat seed. After two cropping seasons the private sector is now the leading producer of quality seed in Afghanistan. Varieties which FAO helped release now cover over 50% of wheat-growing areas.