Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

Other major Government goals relating to agricultureand rural development should benoted, including:• creating the necessary policy and regulatoryframework to support the establishmentof micro, small and medium-size ruralenterprises;• creating the enabling environment for sustainablemanagement and use of Afghanistan’snatural resources;• access to safe drinking water will be extendedto 90 percent of villages, and sanitationto 50 percent;• road connectivity will reach 40 percent ofall villages.• 47 percent of villages will benefit fromsmall-scale irrigation. (See ANDS VolumeTwo for more details)Current SituationAgriculture has traditionally been the majoractivity for a large proportion of the population,particularly in the most remote areas. Theyears of turmoil left much of the country’s agricultureand rural infrastructure in a seriousstate of disrepair and led to a significant reductionof cultivatable land and degradation of theenvironment. Between 1978 and 2004, agriculturalproduction declined by an average of 3.5percent a year; 50 percent of the livestock herdwas lost between 1997 and 2004.Recent performance in the sector has been positive.Measurable progress has been achievedsince 2003 in improving rural livelihoods.Through a variety programs, almost 20,000 kmof rural access roads (i.e., all weather, villageto-villageand village-to-district center roads)have been constructed or repaired, increasingaccess to markets, employment and social services.More than 500,000 households (36 percentof villages) have benefited from smallscaleirrigation projects. Currently, 32.5 percentof the rural population has access to safedrinking water and 4,285 improved sanitationfacilities have been provided. More than336,000 households have benefited from improvedaccess to financial services. Some18,000 CDCs have been established and areimplementing community-led developmentprojects.The contribution of agriculture to GDP increasedfrom 48 percent in 2006 to 53 percent in2007, although the longer run trend (not includingopium) is down due mainly due torapid growth in construction and other activities.Other achievements include: 5.5 millionmetric tons of wheat and other grains producedin 2007 compared to 3.7 million metric tons in2002; 0.9 million metric tons of horticulture andindustrial crops produced in 2007 compared to0.4 million metric tons in 2002; 3.2 million animalsreceived veterinary and health services;5,000 metric tons of improved wheat seed wasproduced and distributed to farmers in 28provinces; $120 million is to be invested incommercial agriculture; more than 3,000 cooperativesand farmers organization have beencreated and strengthened; and 20,000 cooperativemembers trained.However, significant improvements are still tobe made. With a few notable exceptions, allrural citizens are poor in relative and absoluteterms, lacking both physical and social assets.80 percent of the Afghan population live in ruralareas, most of whom are engaged in agricultureto some degree, although many are alsoheavily engaged in processing, trading or marketingactivities of agricultural products; 12-15percent of total land area is suitable for cultivation;water constraints inhibit cultivation of upto one third of irrigated land; three million hectaresof land are rain-fed, in a country of repeateddroughts; 58 percent of villages havelimited seasonal or no access roads (the averagedistance to the nearest road is 4.6 km); 13 percentof rural Afghans have access to electricityat some point during the year; more than 70percent of rural Afghans do not have access tosafe drinking water; 96 percent of rural Afghansdo not have access to safe toilets/sanitation(28 percent have no toilets atall). The continued high population growthprojected for Afghanistan will imply continueddecline in per capita levels of agricultural resourcesunless major investments are made inimproved water management.Ongoing instability, widespread poverty andlack of governance resulted in a dramatic upsurgein opium poppy cultivation, involving3.3 million people (14 percent of the population).Poppy production is now highly concentratedin five southern and eastern provinces,whereas production in the other 29 provinceshas fallen and is half 2004 levels.88Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS)