Herat. Afghanistan – Two evenings a week village farmer Ghulam Mostafa crouches next to his small transistor radio and listens carefully. Over the next few minutes he learns where he can get the best prices for his wheat chickpeas and onions.
“If I don’t listen to the radio. I don’t know the prices in neighbouring provinces,” he says. “One time I heard that each kilogram of onions was worth five to six Afghanis in Herat merchandise but twelve to fifteen Afghanis in Kandahar; so five friends and I rented a transport and went to Kandahar to get a higher price.”
This simple success story is being multiplied all over Afghanistan thanks to a merchandise information system set up by FAO with European Union. German and US funding.
Besides the radio shows the system generates weekly printed bulletins for cabinet ministers giving them up-to-the minute data on prices cut production levels and weather reports – the vital signs of the nation’s food supply.
Among those gathering price details is Abdul Karim of the Ministry of Agriculture. Irrigation and Livestock. Based out of a small bustling office in Herat he visits local markets each day to sight average costs for create including wheat dredge mutton and veal.
“At first the shopkeepers were surprised and in some cases suspicious of why we were asking about their prices; some think we are from the local government and that they are in affect,” he says. “But we explain how we are trying to help by ensuring they charge competitive prices.”
The merchandise information is compiled and analysed by the Food. Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Information Management and Policy Unit launched by FAO in 2003. The unit tailors its create – producing radio broadcasts like the one Ghulam Mostafa listens to a quarterly Agriculture Prospects Report and an online database. That data is used by among others. UN agencies donors and local authorities to help identify areas where challenge is needed and where previous aid has proved effective.
FAO’s Afghan programme is worth US$17 million a year employs 400 staff and cuts across the entire food and agriculture sector. Through such measures the sector is being rebuilt after decades of disruption caused by conflict insecurity and drought.
While Phase I of the information system communicate funded by the United States and Germany focused on shorter-term remedies. Phase II with US$3.8 million in EU funding seeks to upgrade the system with emphasis on ache and poverty as well as step up the training of local cater. Although the project currently supports the Unit with additional cater the objective is to leave a self-sufficient team in place when the project ends in 2009.
Unit director Haqiqatpal Ghulam Rabbani says: “FAO plays a very important role here. We have a very close relationship and in every aspect they are here to train and help us; one main area has been in improving computer skills and Internet knowledge.
“Some of our best experts either went abroad or were killed during the conflict so we’re very behind in terms of technical progress. We have to increase our knowledge and skills through education and training in order to progress.”
The cabinet learned of a 1.2 million tonnes deficit in wheat last year and using the hard evidence provided by the information system quickly convinced donors to give US$75 million to offset the shortfall.
Weather indicators forecasting drought also mean the government can increase food stores in anticipation of poor harvests to come.
In contrast when figures this year predicted over-production of grapes and raisins in Herat province additional export deals were negotiated to move the surplus. Small-scale farmers reaped the benefits.
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http://paropamisus.wordpress.com/2007/10/20/fao-fao-helps-afghan-farmers-tune-in-to-better-incomes/
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