Animal Husbandry and Food Master Plan.

The Animal Husbandry and Food Master Plan of the Ministry of Agriculture of Afghanistan is a cross-sectoral Master Plan chiefly addressing the agricultural sector of Afghanistan. The document elaborates overriding strategies for the following areas separately as well as identifies their cross-cutting issues: agricultural sector development, horticulture, livestock, food security, natural resources, research and technology transfer, privatization and private sector development, quality control and certification systems. The document is a national plan whose objectives include: providing a 6 percent overall growth rate in the agricultural sector of the country, moving the country rapidly towards a high growth rate, rapid reduction in poverty and alternatives to production of poppies. The plan covers agriculture as the basic engine for a high proportion of overall national economic growth, reduction of poverty and poppy substitution.
The Plan notes that the objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food in the field of food security and human nutrition include reducing malnutrition in the Afghan population, especially micronutrient deficiency diseases, improving households consumption of diverse and safe foods and improving households living conditions by means of improving income generation from agricultural activities and improving food production by increasing productivity and diversification. In particular, the strategy areas in this field will include marketing, food crop diversification, nutrition education and extension, input supply, crop loss reduction, pre- and post-harvest, food safety, animal protein production and early warning systems to prevent food crises. The Plan addresses access to food and some of the key underlying causes of food safety in the country. It employs twin-tracked approach in addressing the food security issues: (i) emergency intervention to give hungry people access to food; (ii) development initiatives to increase employment, income and food production. It notes that in conformity with FAO Voluntary Guidelines of the Right to Adequate Food, the state should promote better nutrition for all Afghans, especially children, pregnant women and the vulnerable segment of the population. The Plan notes that access to adequate, nutritious and healthy food is a fundamental human right. Additionally, it provides that policy makers must recognize the basic right of all human beings to access clean drinking water at affordable prices. The Plan consists of a medium term objective to reach better security regarding health and nutrition of animals of farmers to sustain food security and commercial productions generating farm capital. It further elaborates the importance of animal health and the role of the government and community organizations in providing the related services as well as provides concrete actions and projects in this area. The Master Plan also includes certain measures for protection of plant health.
The document addresses gender-related measures and provides gender-sensitive design for specific interventions. For instance, it incorporates a gender-sensitive design within agricultural production intensification strategies, in particular, within the areas of livestock production and water management. The Plan addresses agricultural sector production systems in a balanced way across the related sub-sectors. Across various strategic areas, especially in the natural resources management, the Plan also promotes sustainability and agricultural development in an equitable manner.
The Plan notes that the government and private sector have important role in market support to poor rural populations. The Plan notes that status of rural women is closely associated with the issue of poverty. The Master Plan gives special attention to various aspects of food security for the poor and promotes programs that raise the incomes of the poor and of poor resource areas. The Plan promotes public participation and sustainable use of natural resources. It promotes establishment of user’s groups such as water users’ associations and community management of grazing lands as well as encourages the formation of farmer groups in the form of farmers associations and cooperatives. Development of horticulture and livestock, the strengthening of agricultural support services (input supply, research, extension, rural finance), and the improvement of input and produce quality are identified by the document as medium-term strategies for rural development.
The Master Plan thus indicates that it gives high priority to, for example, intensive livestock development, an area already dominated by women on the production side. According to the document, there is the opportunity to engage women in marketing livestock products, particularly dairy products and thereby increase their control of income. The horticulture priority under the document also offers opportunity to bring women into active participation in production and marketing. Further, the document promotes establishing a market information system for disseminating local price information on a regular and frequent basis to improve the marketing and distribution system for agricultural products. It also addresses the role of the private sector in this area. Additionally, the document provides for horticultural objectives for the period of 2005-2015 for which it envisages measures to improve processing, marketing, extension services and credit services. The Plan also covers the issue of research and technology transfer to support services to agriculture, investment incentives including in the area of processing, public-private dialogue measures and support to family farming.
The Master Plan also includes certain objectives addressing the issues of disasters. In particular, it provides for developing early warning systems for natural disasters through close monitoring of agro-meteorological factors, collaboration among the governmental institutions to gather all relevant data and improve its capacity to foresee disasters. The document sets out certain measures for pest management as well as efforts to combat drought and desertification.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food will be the key government institution responsible for the implementation of the policies. Under the Plan, the Ministry will see restructuring and reform in order to be able to monitor, evaluate and plan regarding the policies set out in the document. Review and monitoring processes will also be created as well as coordination mechanisms among government institutions. Plans also include public-private dialogue and collaborating with local communities, users associations and NGOs. Various institutions will be established in multiple areas covered under the Master Plan in order to implement the policies and adopt new ones to the same end.