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Much has been made of the help promised to Afghanistan that has not come, but in Nangarhar province farmers are plowing up poppy fields to plant orchards and receive training. Hope is growing.
| Orchards: Profitable and Legal |
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Abdul Samad, son of Abdul Rahim has grown poppies for 25 years. This year, he has planted six jeribs (three acres) of poppy, half the land available on his 12-jerib farm. Though the Afghan government has banned poppy production, the crop used to make opium has been virtually the only option for many farmers struggling to make a living in a land torn apart by war.
Poppy planting has increased significantly from last year when almost none was planted in the province as farmers waited for promised alternatives. This year, approximately 20% of the farmers in some participating districts have planted poppies as an insurance policy, fearing the promised help would not arrive. Signing a no-poppy agreement is a requirement to participate in the Eastern Region Orchard Development Program. Samad saw the IFHope engineers working with his neighbors and wanted to be in the program too. He knew he had to plow his poppies under in order to be accepted.
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| Ceremony on Sunday to Launch Program |
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Agreements have all been finalized and the preliminary work phase completed - it is time to plant the trees.
A ceremony to dedicate the partnerships formed and mark the beginning of the planting phase will be will be held Sunday February 9, 2006 in Behsud District. Local officials, farmers, representatives from partnering organizations and press are invited.
"We feel it is important to partner with the village elders in everything we do” Said James Ritchie, President and Founder of IFHope.
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| Warm Weather Pushes Project Into High Gear |
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Unseasonably warm weather means an extra push to get the new trees in the ground. According to Ahmad Said, Agriculture Director for IFHope. The trees are two to three weeks ahead of schedule and the buds are starting to pop. “We are working Fridays and holidays in order to get as many trees in the ground as possible while they are still dormant.” said Said. “We are ahead of schedule, although the shortened timeframe may make us revise our plans.”
IFHope hired 19 senior agricultural technicians (engineers) and 38 helpers to work on the project. They went through two weeks of intensive training and are proving to be a most capable group. They were selected from a list of the top agricultural graduates of Nangarhar University, student helpers IFHope had worked with in the past and the top candidates of a regional search process.
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Alternative Livelihood Program Gaining Ground |
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Photo - Rais Khan, a farmer in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar plows his poppies under in order to participate in an alternative livelihoods program.
The Eastern Region Orchard Development Project is funded by USAID and implemented by DAI through a sub-contract with IFHope. The 3.45 million dollar, three-year program will plant 3,000 hectares of fruit and nut trees in 16 districts of Nangarhar and Laghman Provinces to help build a sustainable and legal economy. 5,000 farmers will participate.
In the short term, the crops will be sold domestically. The export market, especially for high value fruits and nuts, is an important target for the future and has traditionally been a major source of jobs, income and foreign exchange.
According to Jim Du Bruille, IFHope’s Chief of Operations, when the orchards attain full production, this project will create more than $8 million in annual profits to the participating farmers. In addition, over 500,000 person-days of labor will be required for orchard operations each year. “It would be hard to find many better sources of alternative livelihood in production agriculture than fruit and nut trees”, Du Bruille concludes. |
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