Integrated catchment management and capacity building for improving livelihoods in Afghanistan

Investment in soil and water conservation and associated technologies is critical for increasing food security and improving rural livelihoods in Afghanistan. But Afghanistan lacks trained personnel to support agricultural research and development. This adaptive research project will focus on increasing catchment productivity, lifting the productivity of dryland areas, and improving livelihoods of rural people. The focus will be on wheat-based farming systems, enhancing conservation practices and demonstrating more efficient use of natural resources. The project will also help to build the capacity of personnel within the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in the area of natural resource management and wheat/legume productivity, and will encourage the transfer of knowledge through sharing between project partners and farmers.

The project will work in five provinces: In Balkh province (Khulm district, Sayad village) one benchmark catchment site will be established for learning and the adoption of systems using participatory approaches and methodologies. This will be a medium-size catchment (150–200 ha) to demonstrate the benefits of a range of community and farmer-based, small-scale interventions (options) to: capture snow melt, increase infiltration and reduce soil erosion; enhance water availability and its efficient use; crop and livestock system productivity; and diversifying systems and livelihoods in dryland areas of Afghanistan. The research focus in the short term will be on improving dryland cereal-based system productivity. Another smaller satellite watershed site (60 ha) will be established at Badam Bagh Research Station in Kabul. The action points are: 1. To form a coalition of partners with MAIL (DAIL, ARIA, DLF), Solidarités, Universities and CGIAR centres working in the drylands to implement the project, and to establish a Steering Committee to oversee and coordinate the project implementation 2. To strengthen the human capacity of MAIL/ARIA in particular, and coalition partners in general, to effectively implement, monitor and evaluate cereal-based dryland systems and integrated catchment management programs 3. To understand existing cereal-based agricultural systems and livelihoods (baseline data), including the roles and needs of males and females in farming households, and the social, economic and technical contexts (constraints/opportunities) influencing adoption of dryland technologies 4. To establish catchment learning sites and social processes needed to manage and improve natural resources and livelihoods 5. To improve conservation practices in catchments and to increase the productivity and sustainability of cereal-based farming systems.

Investment in soil and water conservation and associated technologies is critical for increasing food security and improving rural livelihoods in Afghanistan. But Afghanistan lacks trained personnel to support agricultural research and development. This adaptive research project will focus on increasing catchment productivity, lifting the productivity of dryland areas, and improving livelihoods of rural people. The focus will be on wheat-based farming systems, enhancing conservation practices and demonstrating more efficient use of natural resources. The project will also help to build the capacity of personnel within the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in the area of natural resource management and wheat/legume productivity, and will encourage the transfer of knowledge through sharing between project partners and farmers. There is evidence to suggest that the project is generating economic, social, policy and environmental impacts (e.g. wage and ancillary employment, reducing soil and water erosion, policy and research advocacy, and environmental safety). Direct wage employment due to man-days created through watershed planning activities is worth 1.1 million Afs apart from its long-term benefit from assets created and soft skills imparted. The project has significant impacts on the watershed R&D information, training policy makers and other stakeholders apart from water recharge, soil fertility improvement, environmental and a range of ancillary benefits. An elaborate study on valuing these impacts will be carried out by the end of the project.