Kabul, Afganistan
July 23, 2008
Source:
FAO
In order to help mitigate the
combined effects of drought and soaring grain prices and ensure
uninterrupted supply of certified seed for Afghan farmers this
coming autumn sowing season, the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and the British Department for
International Development (DFID) have each provided US$3 million
recently as loan funds to 29 small-scale private seed
enterprises across the country to enable the purchase of 6,000
tonnes of certified wheat seed from the enterprises’ contract
growers. This activity will be carried out within the framework
of the Afghanistan Variety and Seed Industry Development
project, which is being implemented collaboratively by the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the
Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
This additional assistance from the US and UK governments come
at a crucial time when soaring food prices have led to more than
a three-fold increase in the price of raw certified seed
produced by contract growers. This has posed serious cash
constraint for the infant small private seed enterprises in
Afghanistan. Without adequate cash made available on time during
the current harvest season, the enterprises would not be able to
buy enough raw seed for processing and cleaning, as much of this
valuable seed would be diverted by the growers to the grain
market. This would obviously result in an acute shortage of
certified seed for the main planting season in October –
November 2008, with a direct negative impact on crop production
in the coming year and a likely contribution to another cycle of
high food prices.
 The
US and UK support, however, is one-time loan assistance,
following which the enterprises will be required to repay the
loans in full after selling their cleaned certified seed. The
repaid loans will be used to create a seed industry development
fund, which will be managed by the Afghanistan National Seed
Association (ANSA) primarily for facilitating the establishment
of new private seed enterprises in more needy parts of the
country under the technical guidance of FAO. A part of the fund
will be used also to strengthen other aspects of the seed
industry including foundation seed supply and crop
diversification.
The small private seed enterprises currently hold the key to
future development of the seed industry in Afghanistan and are
now the leading suppliers of certified seed of wheat, the
country’s leading staple food. The enterprises have also begun
diversifying into other important food security crops such as
vegetables, food legumes and oil crops. Any support that fosters
the sustainable growth and survival of these enterprises will
have a lasting positive impact on food production in
Afghanistan. If more fund become available the Enterprise have
the capacity to increase purchases of more certified seeds.
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