FAO/GIEWS - Foodcrops & Shortages 09/01 - AFGHANISTAN* (17 September)

The overall food situation is very grave, with a large proportion of the population facing starvation. After three consecutive years of drought, most people have exhausted their coping mechanisms and are compelled to leave home and join the ranks of IDPs or refugees. This alarming situation is expected to worsen by recent displacements and evacuation of all UN staff due to concerns about possible attack against Afghanistan following the 11 September events in the United States. Famine indicators such as substantially reduced food intakes, collapse of the purchasing power, decimating livestock, large-scale depletion of personal assets, soaring food grain prices, rapidly increasing number of destitute people, and ever swelling ranks of IDPs and refugees are widely observed.

An FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission which visited the country in May 2001 found that three successive years of below average crop production due to drought, continuing civil conflict and harsh winter have resulted in a grave food crisis. Rainfed crops (wheat and barley) had almost totally failed, except in a few pockets in different regions. Rainfed wheat production in 2001 was estimated to be about 40 percent less than even last year�s extremely low output. The 2001 irrigated cereal production was also, like that of 2000, severely affected by drought. The Mission thus estimated the 2001 total cereal production at 2.03 million tonnes - about 12 percent larger compared to 2000 but smaller by 37 percent compared to 1999. As a result, the cereal import requirement in the 2001/02 marketing year (July/June) was estimated at about 2.2 million tonnes, including 1.4 million tonnes of food aid needs.

An Emergency Operation was jointly approved in August 2001 by FAO and WFP for food assistance for about 5.6 million people affected by drought, worth a total sum of US$150.7 million for a period of 12 months (November 2001 to October 2002).