Afghanistan Agriculture Challenges

Afghanistan has been at the top of newsfeeds as of late with the withdrawal of United States military forces. We have heard about a lot of things happening in and around Afghanistan, but agriculture is one area that has not been focused on heavily with most media sources. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations shares the challenges facing around 7 million farmers in Afghanistan in the story linked below. We encourage you to read the linked article and utilize the discussion points provided to guide your conversations with others around the globe.

Drought threatens the livelihoods of 7 million farmers in Afghanistan

Discussion Points

• How is the drought impacting crop farmers in Afghanistan?
• How is the drought impacting livestock farmers in Afghanistan? 
• How might the recent withdrawal of United States military forces from Afghanistan impact farmers in Afghanistan and the challenges they are facing?
• You have just been put in charge of providing assistance to farmers in Afghanistan. What type of assistance will you provide? How will it be delivered? What are considerations you will have to take account for?

Silos in Afghanistan

In developing countries there are often solutions that can be introduced that seem "simple" to the developed world. Things that we take for granted can be life changing to developing countries. An example of this is when we shared in season fertilizer practices with our partner university in Haiti. By using fertilizer sources available to them and the concept of in season fertilizers yields tripled in one year. Below is a video from the FAO that shares how a silo project in Afghanistan is positively impacting agriculture. Watch the short video (under two minutes) linked below and utilize the discussion points to guide your conversations around the globe.

Silos for Afghanistan 

Discussion Points

• Explain the silo project implemented in Afghanistan.
• How has this project benefited farmers and citizens of Afghanistan?
• Why is it key that this project utilized locals to create the silos?
• This project was tabbed "a simple solution to food and seed loss." What are other "simple solutions" that you can think of that could improve agriculture in developing countries? What are the possible benefits and negatives of your potential solution? What are potential challenges facing your solution and how would you overcome them?