Despite improved crop production, 6 million Afghans still need food aid, UN warns

Despite an overall improvement in Afghanistan's crop production, some 6 million people will continue to need food assistance over the next year, United Nations relief agencies warned in a report released today.

According to the report compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), overall cereal production has staged a recovery in 2002 despite military and political upheavals that coincided with the planting season and a serious locust outbreak in some parts of the country.

"Despite the recovery in this year's agricultural production and the renewed sense of hope, millions of Afghans, particularly pastoralist Kuchis, have little or no access to food due to serious erosion of their purchasing power and/or loss of productive assets," the report says.

The report stresses that "a timely and effective intervention" is all the more essential after successive years of drought, deteriorating irrigation and other infrastructure, and the inability of farmers to access necessary agricultural inputs. A lack of employment within and outside agriculture and a vicious rural indebtedness are also factors in the food shortage.

Besides urging the continuation of food distributions, the report calls for sustained investment in the agricultural sector, particularly the rehabilitation, upgrading and maintenance of the irrigation infrastructure to ensure a speedy recovery of the Afghan economy.