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Afghanistan
Progress
and Activities
• Encouraging First-Year Trials and Demonstrations
The Aga Khan Foundation program operating in the north of the country has sent in a seasonal report from the first year of trials and demonstrations in Baghlan and Takhar provinces. The plant growth achieved was impressive as many as 120 tillers per plant at 96 days but transplanting was done too late to capitalize upon the crop potential given the short growing season there. AKF organized visits and training for dozens of farmers involved in its programs and in that of the German NGO Agro-Action, so there is both much interest and concrete plans set for an expanded and better-timed effort in 2008.
• 2007 Update on SRI Trials in Afghanistan
With support from the Aga Khan Foundation, SRI colleague in India Parcha
Kishan Rao, has trained farmers in Baghlan Province who have
started demo-trials in three locations. Field supervisor Ali Muhammad has sent
a report (July '07) to
AKF/Afghanistan coordinator, Atanu De, which is now available for anyone interested
in following this initiative. (See also May
'07 field report). Weeding emerged
as the most significant difficulty; however, weed problems have been handled
by combining manual and mechanical weeding. Neighboring farmers who were skeptical
about transplanting such tiny seedlings are now impressed by plant growth.
The number of tillers at 42 days after transplanting has reached 48 in some
SRI plants. A subsequent report (August
'07) said that some SRI plants had reached a total of 120 tillerWe will post
an end-of-season report when that information becomes available.
In
Kunduz, an agricultural engineer working with the German NGO
Agro-Action, Fazlullah, has previously reported plans to introduce
and evaluate SRI methods in that northern community in Afghanistan.
We have no information on results from an earlier initiative
in 2003 to introduce SRI methods in the Ajrestan area.
• SRI
Introduced into Ajrestan (2003)
In
July 2003, Humayun Kabir, agricultural advisor for the Metta
Development Foundation in Myanmar, visited Afghanistan for 10
days to introduce SRI to farmers in Ajrestan,
a relatively peaceful area in the central part of the country.
The visit was arranged by Mohammed Daoud, a prominent member
of that community who wants farmers in the area to have better
options for use of the limited water supply available from their
irrigation system. While in Kabul, Kabir also met with a consortium
of NGOs that are working on agricultural development in Afghanistan
and that showed much interest in SRI possibilities. (As of 2007,
however, we have no information on results from the 2003 initiative
to introduce SRI methods in the Ajrestan area).
• SRI
Introduced to NGO in Mazar-e-Sharif
Cornell
PhD student Mark Henning has also introduced SRI to an NGO, Joint
Development Associates International, working around Mazar-e-Sharif
in the north. We hope that SRI can be made use of in Afghanistan
as this country has great need for improving its food security
without relying on external inputs.
Workshops/Trainings
- An SRI training
was undertaken in Ajrestan during Humayun Kabir's
2003 visit to Afghanistan.
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