Kabul – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has requested $115 million in immediate assistance to provide the needs of farmers and their families for incoming winter and upcoming spring.
The FAO tweeted on Friday, November 19, saying that if the aid package is accessible, one-fifth of it will be given directly to women in agriculture.
The $157 wheat aid package could help an Afghan family get the grain they need for one year, according to FAO officials.
Based on the FAO information, $1,080 a year is now needed for an average family to provide their minimum food needs in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, only a handful of farming families in Afghanistan can afford it, as the organization officials said.
Moreover, It now distributes winter wheat packages to farmers in 31 provinces in order to cultivate wheat.
According to FAO officials, Afghan farmers are now preparing for next year’s drought, and the continuation of this situation poses a serious risk of famine in 2022.
Afghan farmers need cash in addition to food aid provided by the World Food Program (WFP), according to a study by Richard Trenchard, the agency’s representative in Afghanistan, who recently visited Herat’s Zinda Jan district.
In addition, he added that the farmers in Afghanistan now have no agencies or individuals to help them, and are eventually forced to sell their items to earn money to prepare for replanting.
The FAO is calling for immediate assistance for the Afghan farmers while Afghanistan has faced drought in multiple years.
According to the agency, seventy per cent of Afghanistan’s population lives in rural areas and 80 per cent of their livelihood is agriculture or livestock.
Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations had earlier warned by publishing a report that the Afghan farmers are selling their lands due to poverty and drought which causes the spread of crisis in Afghanistan.
