May 28, 2007, New York, NY – The European Union has awarded a four-year, 674,000 Euro grant to the Global Partnership for Afghanistan (GPFA) for revitalizing modern fruit production and marketing four districts located in Logar, Paktya and Wardak Provinces in Afghanistan.
The project is designed to increase job opportunities, rural incomes and farm production through the development of local fruit industry clusters in each of four districts. It is expected to regenerate 1,000 hectares of fruit and nut tree orchards in the four clusters, resulting in 20,000 tons of high quality commercial fruit production. GPFA will focus not only on improving farmer agricultural practices, market knowledge and technology but also on connecting the production and marketing segments of the horticultural industry-suppliers, growers, wholesalers and traders-through more efficient systems.
Beginning with a comprehensive market survey, the project will also create a network of 40 private nursery businesses-ten in each of the four target areas-that will propagate high quality, disease-free planting stock closely tied to domestic and export demand. The nursery stock will eventually supply some 1,000 private orchards whose owners will be trained in modern orchard management by GPFA, including integrated pest management, water management and irrigation, reducing losses during harvest, storage and transportation and effective business planning. The nursery stock will also be used to replant orchards which have been neglected during the last three decades of conflict.
Ultimately, the project will stimulate collaboration and cooperative activities among suppliers, nursery owners, growers and wholesalers/traders in each cluster. The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock and other agencies will collaborate in these activities which will evolve into formation of producer groups, commercial associations and self-regulating organizations.
"As they struggle to rebuild their family farms from decades of war and destruction, Afghan growers are fighting not only to find capital but also to bridge a 30-year technology and knowledge gap," said GPFA Executive Director Iqbal Kermali. "The European Union is farsighted in launching a long-term effort to rebuild a once prosperous industry that provided Afghanistan with substantial food supplies and export income."