IN

III.AGRICULTURE

III.1. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC

III.1.1. LAND

Topography is the factor of greatest influence. It controls the local climate and water resources, thus controlling what can be produced and how people live.

Afghanistan is composed of mountainous and desert areas where the Iranian Plateau borders the mountains of Central Asia. The lowest point is Amu Darya at an altitude of 258 m; the highest point is Nowshak at 7,485 m altitude.

III.1.2. CLIMATE

The climate is generally arid to semi-arid, with cold winters and hot summers, a continental climate of extreme temperatures. Annual rainfall ranges from 100 mm to 400 mm.

The accumulated winter snow from the high mountains sustains agriculture. The changing conditions down the snow-fed river valleys create agricultural conditions and thus cropping possibilities. In their upper reaches, valleys are steep, rivers fast-flowing and the valley floors are narrow. Winters are cold, but summers are mild with short but abundant growing conditions.

Lower down, as they move out of the foothills, the valley floors broaden into flat plains with slow-flowing rivers. Here, winters are milder and summers hotter, and the growing seasons are longer.

There are, however, many areas of many different conditions. One person said that "effective cropping involves many valleys, all of them with a different set of conditions".

III.1.3. GEOGRAPHIC REGIONS

As determined by the mountain system described above, Afghanistan is usually divided into 4 geographic regions:

III.1.4. AGRO-ECOLOGICAL AND AGRICULTURAL ZONES

"Afghanistan has no large ecological zones. Every valley or local place is different from its neighbors. Most regions are composed of an endless number of small areas with their own micro-climates" (Tunwar, FAO). Only a small part of Afghanistan's land (12%), mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming, and most of this requires irrigation. However, less than 1/3 of the arable land is irrigated. Water from springs and rivers is distributed through surface ditches and underground channels (karezes). The topography and location of the country results in an extreme diversity of agriculture. This ranges:

---from arid pastoral systems and localized food production areas where irrigation is essential, to sub-mountainous areas where rainfed cereals and legumes are grown and tree fruits produced,

---from large valleys where crop productivity is constrained only by availability of water, to narrow ravine zones where slopes limit the arable land.

Major agro-ecological production zones have been described differently; a most useful system is as shown in the follow table.

Table 2
Major Agro-Ecological Production Zones and Agricultural Land Use (PDF File 61Kb)

III.1.5. IRRIGATION/RAINFED AREAS

Some earlier figures stated that only 8 million ha, of Afghanistan's 63 million ha, were arable. Arable land was scattered throughout the country mostly in valleys along rivers and other water sources.

Nearly 50% of the arable land is irrigated in some manner, ¾ of it located north of the Hindu Kush Mountains. Pre-1978 figures indicate that some 77% of all wheat and 85% of all food and industrial crops came from irrigated lands.

However, only some 2.5 million ha are irrigated annually (FAO sources). Total irrigable area was some 5.3 million ha, of which half is irrigated in a year, while the other half lies fallow, due to water shortage. Only 1.4 million ha of irrigated land had sufficient water throughout the year to allow double-cropping.

Another 1.4 million ha of cultivated rainfed land supplemented the irrigated areas, so that some 4 million ha of land were cultivated annually before 1978 by some 1.2 million farm families (Dennis et al.).

In the past, most irrigation water came from streams, fed with water from the spring rains and melting snow in the mountains. Most irrigated agriculture is along streams in valleys. During the recent extended drought, both snow and rain have been far below normal, so streams/rivers are considerably below normal, with some completely dry. Tube wells are becoming common sources of water for irrigation. In fact, as this mission traveled, boring of new tube wells was seen in many places. It is reported that the underground water table is dropping all over the country as a result of increasing irrigation from tube wells.

However, it was noted that villagers in several places visited reported some more water in the streams this year. And, rainfall this spring has been sufficient in some places so that field irrigation has been minimal up to this time.

Current status: Much (ranging from 30% up) of the irrigations systems are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the war. Because of abandonment, neglect and lack of maintenance, another 15-20% of the irrigation system probably is not in condition to support agriculture. Actual irrigated land thus probably amounts to 1.2-1.3 million ha, and is decreasing every year. Decline in irrigation availability and efficiency aggravates the already-failing crop production (USDA, reported by Dennis et al.).