Agriculture
Afghanaid has transferred skills to thousands of Afghan farmers and equipped them with capabilities to grow improved wheat, vegetables, fruit orchids and in better animal care. Afghanaid supports 3000 Afghan women and men to become effective producers and entrepreneurs by building their skills in business development, linking them with markets and financial services, and by supporting them to organize themselves in groups to pool savings and set up small financially viable businesses. Afghanaid plans to scale up this work to include another nearly 8000 village women and men in this programme.
Introducing new crops helps nutrition and boosts income
Farmer Field Schools feature training and allotment-sized pieces of land on which the locals grow different crops using our methods. The farmers keep the produce that they grow.
Afghanaid introduces crops such as spinach, lettuce and radishes to improve the local diet and bring a higher price at market.In addition to this Afghanaid promotes the sustainable use of common property resources such as irrigation systems, water managment, forests and pastures, some of which are included in Afghanaid's engineering projects.
We also teach non-farmers how to set up kitchen gardens to grow herbs, spices and vegetables in their backyard to improve their family's nutrition and save them money. Afghanaid has established 744 kitchen gardens. Afghanaid has distributed 600 vegetables seeds and food processing hand tool packages to the local communities. we also provide food processing and nutrition training for women.
To avoid soil erosion and make it more fertile, Afghanaid has established 13 community forests and over 11,434 trees saplings have been distributed.
Afghanaid has distributed 300 beehives and 445 wheat banks to provide seeds for farmers. More than 12,000 farmers benefit each year and 105 villagers have trained as beekeepers.
13 community based agriculture research centres have been established while 13000 farmers recieve training and extension services every year.
Smallholder producers organisations
Afghanaid facilitates smallholder producers in organising themselves in grassroots producer organisations and supports the forming of producers associations at district and provincial levels in order to jointly procure and manage agricultural supplies and services or increase the sale of their produce and products.
Smallholder producer organisations and associations' capacities in leadership, management, negotiation and advocacy, technical skills, sorting, grading, packing, and marketing are developed while fostering their linkages with traders, service providers, and credit facilities to set up individual or joint micro or small businesses. In addition, group formation and producer organisations inevitably results in bringing group cohesion and building social capital.
Upper Catchment Rehabilitation and Management
Farming in some areas of Badkshan rely on rain water. These areas are volunerable in droughts season. Afghanaid has initiated upper catchment and rehabilitation program in collaboration with DACAAR. The project aims to restore the sub catchments and preserve the upper catchments in Badkshan.
75000 households with 500,000 people including the line departments and local leaders will benefit from the project.
Horticulture Working Group
This project aims to assimilate the smallholder farmers and to build their capacity to enhance the quality of their products. This project also aims to facilitate these small holder famers in getting access to bigger local and international markets.
Afghanaid has helped 90,000 small holder farmers through this project.
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A donation of £5 a month provides the necessary seeds and tools to set up a kitchen garden.
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A one-off donation of £40 buys fruit saplings so that a farmer can set up a commercial orchard.