CRS helping Afghan farmers
Catholic Relief Services has begun an emergency intervention in rural Afghanistan in hopes of averting a collapse of village economies and a resulting refugee crisis. Andy Schaefer, program manager for CRS in Afghanistan’s Ghor Province, briefed Catholic San Francisco on the situation during a visit to the Bay Area last week.
Schaefer said the intervention began in December and will extend through the summer harvest, supporting farmers in Ghor and other provinces in central and eastern Afghanistan.
“This is in response to the increase in world food prices,” Schaefer said. “From May of last year to May of this year the price of wheat , which is the staple, has tripled. This tripling has been exacerbated by drought and years of conflict and has had a negative impact on the livelihood of rural farmers.”
The overseas relief agency of U.S. Catholics, CRS is supporting farmers by providing them with opportunities to make money working for the agency. For example, farmers can earn $2 a day repairing canals and clearing snow from mountain roads. CRS provides vouchers to elderly and disabled residents who are unable to work.
“The program works to blanket the entire village,” Schaefer said. “What we’re seeing is we can’t just support the poorest of the poor.”
The economic lift is designed to hold up village economies until the August harvest. This works partly by providing farmers paid work so they will not have to sell off their herds to be able to afford wheat.
“One goat or one head of livestock used to be able to get you four bags of wheat,” Schaefer said. “Now, because of the food crisis, farmers are trying to unload some of their herds. Now there’s a glut in the market, causing prices to drop. One head of livestock will get you about a bag of wheat. Our concern is that if rural farmers and communities are not provided with these basic staples, it will cause mass displacement, forcing people to urban centers, which will be an even bigger crisis because the infrastructure of Afghanistan’s largest cities is unable to accommodate these people.”
(By Rick DelVecchio)
