Emergency support to improve the food security and livelihoods of vulnerable farming families affected by high food prices and the drought crisis through the provision of certified wheat seed and fertilizer in Afghanistan

The main activity of the project was to procure 240 tonnes of certified wheat seed, together with 240 tonnes of diammonium phosphate fertilizer and 480 tonnes of urea fertilizer for distribution to 4 800 farming families (equivalent to approximately 33 600 individuals, based on an average household size of seven members) for the autumn 2010 planting season. A kit consisting of 50 kg of wheat seed, 50 kg of diammonium phosphate and 100 kg of urea fertilizer was distributed to each of the 4 800 families for the cultivation of about 0.4 hectares of irrigated land. Specific project activities included:

• selection of regional offices (ROs)/implementing partners (IPs);
• selection of project districts, villages and beneficiaries;
• provision of training to staff members of Directorate of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (DAIL) and the IPs;
• defining the technical specifications of inputs;
• procurement of 240 tonnes of certified wheat seed, 240 tonnes of diammonium phosphate and 480 tonnes of urea;
• quality control of procured inputs;
• tendering, contracting of private transport companies and transportation of procured inputs to the project distribution points;
• conducting socio-economic survey of 4 800 beneficiaries, utilizing enumeration questionnaires;
• distribution of inputs to the selected beneficiaries;
• provision of agro-technique trainings by the IPs to the beneficiaries;
• collection of post-distribution questionnaire by the contracted IPs, and brief analysis by FAO’s Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordination Unit (ERCU);
• conduct the post-harvest questionnaire survey training by FAO to the IPs and DAIL staff;
• collection of data for post-harvest questionnaires, with sample size of 10 percent of all the beneficiaries by the IPs, and statistical analysis by FAO's ERCU;
• collection of co-payment fund under reimbursement scheme from the beneficiaries by the IPs (all co-payment funds have been deposited by the IPs in agreement with the targeted communities);
• identify community-based micro projects through community mobilization in close collaboration with the IPs and DAIL; and
• implementation of selected community-development micro projects in targeted districts of the project.