FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 02/01 - AFGHANISTAN* (14 February)

The country is gripped by a grave food crisis, following two consecutive years of drought, continuing civil conflict and a harsh winter. Recent reports indicate increasing number of deaths from freezing temperatures in western and northern parts.

The 2000 drought has devastated crops and livestock across the country, with more than 3 million people severely affected. In addition, intensified civil conflict, particularly in northern parts, has resulted in fresh waves of population displacement, aggravating the already precarious food situation. Large-scale movement of people, particularly from remote districts in Ghor, Badghis and Faryab Provinces has already begun with destitute households now being accommodated in camps at the edge of Herat, the main urban centre in the west. Furthermore, in the past five months alone, an estimated 150 000 people have crossed into northern Pakistan and are living in grim and freezing conditions in camps around Peshawar.

Prospects for the 2001 cereal crops, for harvest from May/June, remain uncertain mainly due to persistent insecurity in the provinces of the north, which contain some 40 percent of the country's irrigated area.

An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission which visited the country in the middle of last year warned of the emerging serious food crisis in the country. The Mission estimated total cereal production in 2000 at 1.82 million tonnes, about 44 percent below 1999 and 53 percent compared to 1998. Cereal import requirements in the 2000/01 (July/June) marketing year, estimated at a record 2.3 million tonnes, are nearly double the 1999/2000 estimated volume of 1.3 million tonnes. Low precipitation last winter and insufficient vegetation growth in most highland pastures in the western and southern regions during the spring have resulted in extremely high losses of livestock for the nomadic population.

In 2000, WFP distributed some 161 000 tonnes of food to 3.3 million worst affected people, compared to 82 631 tonnes for the same period last year. The UN has renewed a US$220 million appeal launched last November where less than US$14 million has been pledged by the end of January 2001.

Back to menu