AFGHANISTAN SEED AND CROP IMPROVEMENT SITUATION

VII. SOCIAL NEEDS AND CONSIDERATIONS

VIII.12. IMPROVING VARIETY ACCEPTANCE THROUGH ON-FARM TRIAL DESIGN AND INTERPRETATION

A reasonable case can be made that deficiencies in the design of OFTs help to explain the perceived shortfall in farmer adoption of modern wheat varieties in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Additional scientific rigor might be added to OFTs in a number of ways.

VIII.12.1. COMMON SEED SANITATION

Seed of varieties being compared should be equally disease-free.

VIII.12.2. EQUAL ACCESS TO PROFESSIONAL SEED IMPROVEMENT

The phenomenon of yield decline over time also affects local varieties. Landrace and locally-improved varieties of some cereal crops typically gain 10-15% in yield as a result of professional re-selection of plants (which may actually change the genotype and phenotype of the variety). Within a typical cereal seed population, there is a tendency for plants with lower yield potential to be weedier and have more aggressive growth habits. As a result, over a series of cropping seasons there is a tendency for the percentage of higher-yield potential plants to be reduced as a result of crowding under typical field conditions. In variety improvement and stock seed selection, planting out wider-spaced individual plant or head rows allows plant selection to reduce the proportion of less weedy, while the proportion of higher-yield potential plants is increased.

VIII.12.3. MULTI-YEAR TRIALS

Multi-year on-farm trials help ensure realistic comparisons for several reasons. One, multi-year trials test the varieties under a broader range of climatic conditions than are present in a single season. Second, an introduced variety may enjoy a honeymoon period for several years before local patho-systems and insect pests challenge it seriously.

VIII.13. PRESENT BIODIVERSITY LEVELS AND INFORMAL SEED SECTOR TECHNIQUES IN WHEAT AND OTHER CROPPING SYSTEMS

Farmers who manage both rainfed and irrigated crops are more hedged against environmental change and their seed collections is more diverse, and thus as a group are often useful to work with during post-emergency rehabilitation. In 2001 and 2002, FOCUS Humanitarian Relief hired farmers of rainfed and irrigated wheat in Bamiyan and Baghlan provinces to grow rainfed-variety wheat seed in irrigated fields as a means of multiplying such seed under lower risk as compared to planting the same seed in rainfed environments (Fitzherbert, 2000).

VIII.13.1. WHEAT SEED SELECTION

In no interviews during the May mission, no farmers were identified who practiced wheat seed selection in a relatively uniform standing crop. A number of wheat farmers did admit to selecting seed from particular parts of a standing crop when the stand itself was uneven as might be caused by uneven soil fertility, uneven water supply, bird or insect damage, disease or lodging. Nor did farmers describe complex arrays of varieties, local or modern, or mention particularly rapid variety turnover from one year to the next. No farmer admitted to selecting his wheat seat by selecting individual panicles. However, selection techniques were used for maize, watermelons, and cucumber, i.e., choosing attractive ears or fruit for seed purposes. (It should be noted that in other countries, selection of maize seed by choosing attractive ears was found to reduce yield, as resulting plants tended to produce one large ear which gave overall yield less than that of plants which produced 2-3 medium-sized ears).

VIII.13.2. WHEAT VARIETY DIVERSITY

This relatively informal research gave the impression that wheat variety diversity within relatively central, irrigated wheat systems was generally cosmopolitan with respect to origin, but relatively impoverished with respect to numbers of varieties and the complexity of their distribution over space and time.

Wheat varietal diversity found within irrigated systems within a day's drive of Kabul City was relatively low. One farmer said he was growing four varieties in the 2001-2002 season. All others stated they were growing three or fewer. The two modern wheat varieties, Ataya and Pamir were frequently mentioned in Logar and Kabul provinces. Farmers sometimes referred to their local variety(s) as "gandum watani" or "local variety" and there was not sufficient time and resources to determine how many actual varieties were being referred to.

VIII.13.3. OVERALL FINDINGS FROM 5 CENTRAL PROVINCES

In May 2002, the following overall findings can be summarized:

Farmers relied more or less equally on themselves, merchants, and NGO's for wheat seed with seed exchanges between farmers a distant fourth.
Farmer confidence in NGO seed was high in all five provinces visited.
Farmers are comfortable with wild rye and mixtures of multiple varieties of wheat in a field. A certain amount of wild rye is thought to make dough more manageable in the tandoor oven. High plant densities and tolerance of high levels of wild rye seemed to relate to the importance of maximizing production of animal fodder from areas planted to wheat. Research is needed to ascertain if fodder production increases as wild rye admixture increases in irrigated wheat fields.
Farmers generally do not select wheat and barley seed prior to harvest per se, but will favor a seed plot area by applying more irrigation and generally better care. Farmers do practice selection techniques with other crops such as maize, melons, and cucumbers.
Ironically, the wheat field observed to have the highest percentage of wild rye (roughly 40%) was rented land belonging to a non-operational state dairy farm on the southern outskirts of Kabul.

Steps should be taken to minimize a tendency to "seed management passivity" by accompanying seed distributions with (appropriately field-tested) instructions on how best to manage seed plots and to select, store, rotate and exchange seed varieties, and to provide feedback to agricultural extension personnel, NGOs, and others on the pros and cons of varieties to which farmers are exposed. A practical means of achieving this is described in the "Village Seed Program" included in the Strategies and Recommendations section of this report.

While controlling factors may be the lack of variety development, seed supply, and extension promotion during the extended conflict and the emergency situation it created, it is clear that farmer financial condition was quite important.

VIII.14. SAMPLE FARMER INTERVIEW WITH MR. JUMA KHAN, BAMIYAN CENTER

VIII.14.1. FAMILY STATUS

Mr. Juma Khan is a 30-year-old farmer in the village of Sar Asiab in Bamiyan Center District of Bamiyan Province. Like most people in Bamiyan, he is Hazara. He has 12 years of education, is married, and has 5 children aged 1 to 12. Another child had died. The three oldest, a son and two daughters, attend school. He would like to have 12 children. He has no debt and one jerib of land (2000 M2).

When he was 18, Mr. Khan had a job with the Ministry of Agriculture instructing farmers on how to grow apple, pear, and apricot trees. Six years ago, he had a job with the Ministry as a forest guard. He still thinks of himself as having this job even though he has not been paid in many years.

When interviewed on May 25, he had been working for the NGO Solidarites for 25 days helping to rebuild roads and irrigation canals, at a pay scale of 70,000 Afghanis per day (US$2/day).

He and his family were displaced to Kabul when the Taliban first came to Bamiyan four years ago. He has been back in Bamiyan for 3 months.

VIII.14.2. WHEAT SEED USE

Mr. Khan bought 50 kg of "Weeks" variety wheat seed in the Bamiyan bazaar for 40,000 Afghanis per seer (5,714 Afghanis/kg or USS0.16/kg). At 55 days, the crop looked good. He had already irrigated three times, with the ample amounts of gravity-flow irrigation water that flow through Bamiyan Center at various levels. At the first irrigation, he applied 25 kg of Sona brand urea fertilizer from Pakistan, for which he paid 350,000 Afghanis (US$10).

He said there were no farmers specializing in seed production in his village. Farmers tend to keep their own seed. He sometimes buys seed from another farmer in the village, paying about 5000 Afghanis/seer more than the price of wheat in the market.

During harvest in drought years, he sets aside good-looking batches of wheat sheaves. He threshes these by hand with a stick, and stores the seed in a room in his house. He "selects" seed every time the harvest is not good, but otherwise simply takes his seed from the main harvest.

VIII.14.3. POTATO SEED USE

Mr. Khan gets fresh seed every year, but "this year is using his own." Next year he will source his seed from a more distant place like Jalalabad, Kabul, Mazar-e-Sharif, or Maydan Shar District of Warkdak. However, while such seed "comes from someone else", there is no measure of its quality for planting purposes, such as virus freedom or varietal quality. Mr. Khan did not mention any potato variety, but his 19-year-old neighbor, who planted 2 jerib of Weeks variety wheat, had planted 3 jerib of potatoes using his own seed of what he identified as three varieties: Sabz Gul (green flower), Safed Gul (white flower), and Bay Gul (flowerless).

VIII.15. WHEAT VARIETY TURNOVER: INTERVIEW WITH ONE FARMER IN KHWAJA OMERI DISTRICT, GHAZNI

Mr. Nezamudin is a 38-year-old Tajik farmer living in Koshk village in Ghazni Center. The village has about 150 families. His family moved here from Herat about five generations ago. He has two sons and two daughters. All are vaccinated for measles and polio and the oldest child, an 8-year-old daughter, is in school. Four other children have died, which is an extraordinarily high level of child mortality.

This season Mr. Nezamudin is renting 5 jerib of land for "130 lakhs Afghani" (US$371) and share-cropping another 5 jerib of land at a rate of 2 parts of the crop to the landowner and one part to Mr. Nezamudin, with the landowner paying for all purchased inputs. He typically uses 40 kg/jerib of Urea and 20 kg/jerib of double ammonium phosphate. The cash rent of 130 lakhs (1 lakh = 100,000) Afghani is more than his existing debt level, which he put at 60 lakhs Afghani borrowed from relatives. His land use this season is: wheat 2 jerib, onion 2 jerib, cucumber 1 jerib, potato 1 jerib, and the rest (4 jerib) orchard.

His wheat variety use over time was reportedly:

1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Ataya 85	Ataya 85	Ataya 85	Gul 96	Gul 96
Kalak	Kalak	Pamir 94	Pamir 94

Two shifts are evident in this 5-year time series:

Kalak, a local variety that he had used for "20 years", was discarded in 2000 in favor of two modern varieties.
In 2002, he grew only one wheat variety, in contrast to two varieties in each of the four preceding years. As Mr. Nezamudin is an "incremental adopter", it appears likely that he will also plant some or all of his wheat crop to Gul 96 in 2003.

VIII.16. POTENTIALLY USEFUL PARAMETERS

With a view to monitoring the varietal diversity and capacity of the informal seed sector in a particular district, the following parameters might be useful to measure, particularly for important crops like wheat:

The capacity of skilled farmers in each community to both "clean up" a seed population and to select for desirable traits.
The propensity for farmers to trade or otherwise exchange crop variety seed.
The number of land race and locally-improved crop varieties that exist in the area.
The relative evenness of local distribution of these varieties, and
The rate of varietal turnover-defined as the sum of variety adoptions and discards from one year to the next.

VIII.17. CONTINUING NEEDS

The disparity of social and economic conditions in the country, the agriculture sector in Afghanistan, including the informal seed sector, will require a mix of emergency and development aid for some time to come.

As emergency aid is particularly difficult to administer effectively, it may be tempting to cite evidence that it has become "part of the problem." Yet, the grim reality of war-torn and drought-stricken areas of rural Afghanistan is that food insecurity continues to affect as much as 90% of the population; areas of absolute poverty and social vulnerability persist; and therefore subsidized aid has an important role to play in re-establishing a viable basis for rural livelihoods and the civil society upon which it is based.

Both formal and informal seed sectors could be fostered in the following ways:

collection of local land races for conservation, research, and breeding purposes within the formal and informal seed sectors.
Pure-line selection and comparative extension demonstration and promotion to farmers of local and improved varieties of wheat, barley, and rice.
Training of skilled farmers by seed technicians in improved methods of seed selection and processing for on-farm use with both local and improved varieties, as proposed in the "Village Seed Program" proposed in the Strategies Section of this assessment.
Using both exotic and local variety material, conduct research on "mixture effect" dynamics for higher yields and IPM benefits that may be achieved by use of multi-line populations, intercropping of two varieties in the same field, or small field mosaic plantings to achieve "conferred resistance" and other benefits. As this is largely in the nature of generally-applicable basic research, it may be conducted either at ICARDA or in Afghanistan, if facilities there become available.
Promotion of participatory breeding, already practiced by ICARDA in Egypt and Syria, in which breeding lines are planted in farmers' fields and farmers choose the lines that appear to be most attractive. Formal sector scientists then complete the process required to stabilize the lines to the point where they can be bulked up and released to farmers.