The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has informed of the U.S. aid to the people of Afghanistan, saying that the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) aid to Afghanistan will boost food production in eight provinces of the country.
According to a statement released by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.S. Agency for International Development’s new $80 million grant to Afghanistan will boost food production which will generate more income for the country and revive rural markets.
The statement has said that the projects set to be launched in Nimroz, Ghor, Daikundi, Jawzjan, Badakhshan, Nuristan, Paktika and Parwan provinces.
“Agriculture is the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy, people’s livelihoods, food production and food security. Almost half of the total population face acute food insecurity, hunger on a daily basis, reaching over 70 percent in many rural areas. USAID’s generous support will help Afghanistan’s farmers to begin seeing beyond the current crisis and start laying foundations for future recovery” the FAO’s Representative in Afghanistan Richard Trenchard said.
The five-year contribution from USAID will support the country’s urgent need for emergency intervention, to help farmers and build more climate-smart and resilient livelihoods through an increase in the production of nutritious foods and fostering an environmentally friendly practices, the statement from the UN’s FAO added.
The UN agency is also implementing an unprecedented humanitarian program to protect rural livelihoods of more than nineteen million people across 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces this year during this difficult time.
The FAO said it will create some producer groups to enhance linkages to local markets and create micro financing opportunities which will target various products including dairy, crops, and livestock and provide people with tools such as micro solar dryers, and zero-energy cold storages, among other equipment.
Recent earthquakes, flash floods and droughts have added to the economic problems and poverty of people in the country. Many Afghan citizens believe that if the aids are delivered on time to the people facing with severe economic crisis, it will somehow manage the crisis.
Shah Zaman, a resident of Kabul, says unfortunately the people are facing with humanitarian crisis in the country as the majority of people have lost their employment and on the other hand recent natural incidents as earthquake and flash floods have added to the people’s increasing poverty. Flash floods in the country in the past one year have resulted in killing more than 521 people and wounding 726 more including children and women, according to officials of the Commission for Disaster Management. The commission has said that more than 20,000 homes have been destroyed in the past one year.
Kohistani
U.S. to provide $80 mln aid to Afghanistan
