SUNDAY, JULY 27, 2003
Afghanistan to harvest its biggest wheat crop
PTI
UNITED NATIONS: Afghanistan is about to harvest its biggest wheat crop in two decades thanks to good rainfall, improved security situation and assistance from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
"This is a very encouraging development considering that the country suffered greatly from armed conflicts and a four-year drought. We are expecting that the harvest will amount to more than 4 million tons," the FAO representative in Kabul, Serge Verniau, said.
The situation improved after good rains, better access to seeds and fertilizers and a more stable security situation, he said. "I would say that FAO's emergency activities, such as the delivery of seeds, fertilizers and tools and the successful control of potentially damaging locust outbreaks in the north, contributed to this success," Verniau added.
But the country will still need to import an estimated one million tons of wheat, he noted.
Poverty is still widespread and people have no access to nutritious diet or simply cannot afford it. They often live just on bread and tea, small quantities of milk and yoghurt and some legumes. People are not starving, but diets are not rich enough for children to grow and to develop mentally and for adults to be productive, Verniau said.
Meanwhile on the ground, tens of thousands of people are returning to their homes in the western province of Badghis amid what seems to be the end of a long and devastating drought that had forced them to leave in the last few years, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said.
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