A farmer in Afghanistan's Logar Province makes silage for his animals to prevent shortage of fodder during the winter. ©FAO/Zia Najeeb

The livestock sector in Afghanistan has suffered immensely from a shortage of quality animal feed during the few decades of conflict, preventing most Afghan smallholder livestock farmers from realizing their full potential. In particular, crop failure and fodder shortage, especially in the winter season, has been a major limiting factor in improving livestock production. Moreover, a lack of awareness on artificial insemination, livestock management, stable improvement, animal feeding and health, silage and compost making as well as the lack of animal husbandry skills and the shortage of market for dairy products have contributed to reduced productivity of the dairy sector and has led to lower economy of the rural population.

A 58-year-old livestock farmer from Mohammad Agha District of Logar Province, half an hour away from Kabul, had a lot of difficulties in feeding his family and getting his children an education. Haji Rahmatullah’s economic challenges made him feel almost hopeless. But after receiving membership at the dairy cooperative, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) provided him with a range of services to increase dairy production from his cows and make an income. He was trained on hygienic milking, basic veterinary skills, improved fodder production and livestock feeding  as well as animal housing practices to help him increase his cow’s milk production and find a sustainable income source. FAO has also supported the establishment of a milk collection centre at his village.

Through its dairy project, FAO facilitated privately run veterinary field units (VFUs) to provide services to dairy farmers at a reasonable price on a cost-recovery basis. In addition, livestock owners received certified fodder seed such as berseem, oats, forage beats, sorghum, millet and maize, leading to increased animal feed availability and better dairy production.

Before this assistance, he was feeding his cow the traditional way using wheat straw and low-quality fodder by-products. Meanwhile, green fodder was seasonal and silage had never been considered as a priority feed preservation strategy by many farmers. It was very challenging to convince farmers that silage could be the backbone of their farm feeding programme.

Rahmatullah was trained on silage making using the farmer field school (FFS) approach, which has improved his knowledge and practical skills in preparing fodder for his livestock. He further trained 25 other villagers outside of the project coverage area in silage making. This year, the villagers trained by him produced more than 60 000 kg of silage for their cows.

“The support by FAO dairy project enabled us to provide quality feeding for the livestock during the winter season,” said Rahmatuallah while talking about the impact of the training on silage making.

Using the knowledge and skills he attained during the training, Rahmatullah produced 20 000 kg of silage for his cows.

The support from FAO has improved Rahmatullah’s income as well as increased the milk production from his cows four times. Rahmatullah has four cows and crossbreed calves now and his cows produce 47 litres of milk a day.  Around four litres of the milk is consumed by his family and the other 43 litres are sold at the nearby milk collection centre for 27 Afghani (USD 0.3) per litre. His daily income from selling the milk is 1 161 Afghanis (roughly USD 13) while the same reaches up to 34 830 Afghanis (around USD 390) in a month.

“I have a sustainable income source now. My children study in a private school and attend tuitions. I pay their fee through the income I am making from selling milk, silage and calves,” Rahmatullah described.