66 development projects signed between MRRD, CDCs

Afghanistan Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Developments (MRRD) has said that a balanced growth for Afghan villages will be considered in the future for development projects.

The MRRD on Tuesday signed 66 development projects, worth 193 million Afghanis with the Community Development Councils villages (CDC) to strengthen agriculture sector.

Rotating water dam, water channels and water supply to the agricultural sector include the projects.

“Most of the expenditures will be financed by the Asian Development Bank,” Nasir Ahamd Durani, minister of rural development said.

Durani added that there are corruptions in development projects in Ghazni province and the contracts with the implementing agencies have been canceled.

Afghanistan is still largely a rural society with a subsistence economy based on agriculture. With a rapidly growing population, and millions of refugees having returned from neighbouring countries, the limited resources of farmland and water are under greater pressure than ever before.

The rural population urgently needs to improve food security by diversifying and developing its economic base, improving access to education and healthcare, developing new sources of household income and improving transport and communications infrastructure.

Without these changes, most rural Afghans will remain impoverished, unable to improve their standard of living.

Agriculture has traditionally been the major source of income for the majority of the Afghan population, but the sector has suffered greatly from nearly 30 years of conflict, low investments and natural disasters.

Much infrastructure remains to be reconstructed and internal markets are still disrupted.

About 70 percent of the Afghan population lives in rural areas. Around 60 percent of the employed workforce is in agriculture working in low-productivity and subsistence-type production.

About 45 percent of rural people are poor, as compared to 27 percent of the urban population.

A basic lack of resources affects the majority of Afghans who depend on agriculture for their livelihood.

There is little arable land, precipitation is scarce and climatic conditions are difficult in many parts of the country. Since 1999, recurrent droughts have severely affected the livelihoods of rural households, which had already lost many of their assets. Poverty rates in areas without irrigation are likely to be higher, with 65 percent households facing food insecurity.

The programs of rural developments have been implemented since the last 13 years in Afghanistan.

Reported by Nabila Hafizi