Islamic Republic of Afghanistan - Enhanced Integrated Framework ...

ilitation that will provide all weather roadaccess to 65 percent of villages by 2013.• The Rural Water Supply and SanitationProgram will assure that by 2013 98 percentof villages will have access to safe drinkingwater and 50 percent of villages will haveimproved sanitation facilities. This willsubstantially improve health, hygiene andwelfare in rural communities.• The Irrigation Program will establish irrigationinfrastructure on an additional105,000 ha of new irrigated land by 2018and improve on-farm water use efficiency.• The National Resource Program will establishNational Resource Managementcommittees and develop national resourcemanagement plans for forests, rangeland,wildlife and desertification control.• The National Surveillance System Projectwill assist MRRD and CSO in the developmentof a national poverty, vulnerabilityand food security surveillance system andenable the government to provide credibleand timely information to all governmentand non-government agencies.• The Rural Electrification Program willresult in over 4,000 villages being connectedto local electrical facilities.• The Rural Enterprise Program will providetraining and finance to establish ruralenterprises across 70 percent of all CDCsand create an estimated 2.1 million jobs,better integrate the rural economy with thenational economy and reduce poppy cultivation.• The Research and Extension System willestablish a research and extension capability;provide access to credit, support farmersorganization and private sector marketdevelopment through cooperatives, leadingto agricultural growth and diversification.• The Emergency Response System willprovide a mechanism for humanitarian anddisaster response that will provide emergencyassistance, assure access to areas affectedby snow and disasters and protectvulnerable people and assets.• The Capacity Building Program will providethe institutional and organizationalcapacity at the national, provincial and districtlevels needed to successfully implementthe other CARD programs. (SeeANDS Volume Two and Appendix “NationalAction Plan/Policy Matrix” for moredetails)Support for Commercial Agriculture:There is virtually no large scale commercialagricultural activity currently undertaken inAfghanistan. This has not always been thecase. Earlier turmoil destroyed much of thecountry’s agricultural and physical infrastructure,halting commercial activities. There hasbeen limited recovery since 2002. This includesongoing efforts to increase the internationalcommunity’s, including ISAF, procurement ofagricultural products from local producers,promoting large scale production and supplychain processes.The Agriculture and Rural Development Zones(ARDZ) program is the Government’s approachto expanding commercial activities andincreasing agricultural productivity. This isnecessary to increasing incomes and employmentopportunities in rural areas and to developpotential agro-based export potential.The ARDZ recognizes that geographic prioritieshave to be set in support of the developmentof commercial agriculture. These geographicpriorities will be used to target infrastructure,utilities and other support by variousministries. The Government will release publiclyheld land to increase private investment.Competitive bidding for the rights to leasethese lands will be similar to the competitivebidding to lease development rights for mineralresources and the competitive bidding forthe rights to use the telecommunications spectrum.Further, the Government will continueto investigate, implement and monitor keysteps necessary to increasing financial andtechnical support so that private firms are ableto expand operations. This will ensure theprocess of transforming underutilized stateland into commercially viable agro-processingenterprises will be as fast and efficient as possible.The Government’s objective is to largely relyon private investment and public sector supportto transform agriculture in some well definedzones where the conditions for growthare most favorable and high value addedcommercial agricultural activities can flourish.Economical and Social Development 91