Aid Agencies Help Boost Wheat Production In Afghanistan

Afghan officials say wheat production in the country’s eastern Kunar province has seen a 50 per cent increase this year with the help of aid agencies.

Pajhwok Afghan News reported that the rise is down to growers being trained in wheat production and provided with improved seeds and other items by the international agencies.

Last year 20,000 hectares of land were sown with wheat, yielding 48,000 tonnes. This year wheat production shot up to 74,500 tonnes.

Afghan engineer Mahsal Khan said a technical advisor from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded Local Governance and Community Development (LGCD) program had also helped provide jobs for 25 women, with each of them being given 50 kilograms of wheat flour, 50 kilograms of cooking oil and other essential items on a monthly basis by the World Food Programme.

The USAID is also attempting to provide an alternative to poppy cultivation by giving 7000 farmers vegetable seeds and fertilizers.