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Improving Water Supplies, Knowledge, Financing Options and Access to Markets are the Keys to Modernizing Afghan Agriculture.
Afghanistan’s plentiful fallow land and abundant reserves of fresh water hold the potential to turn agriculture into a booming national industry. Unfortunately, agriculture has been dangerously neglected to the point that rural farmers choose to harvest opium instead of crops.
Investing in power is a pre-requisite for modernizing agriculture. Micro-hydro schemes can quickly address these problem, while larger grids are laid down for the long-term. Next we need to building transportation and storage infrastructure, improve knowledge and increase the availability of financing to food producers.
The government also needs to modernize animal husbandry practices so that meat and animal by-products can become growth industries for herders and nomads. Building the national market and then access to regional and international markets for these products will then do the critical heavy-lifting by boosting demand.
NATO forces provide a large and immediate local market for Afghan produce. Neighboring countries like Iran and the Gulf states, which import the majority of their food, can also become strong regional trade partners, both as consumers and as investors. Small concessions from the international markets like the European Union can also provide an enormous stimulus for Afghan agriculture.
With careful management, Afghan beef, wheat, maize, almonds, apricots and more can supply global markets in 2-3 years.
