ECONOMICS

Afghanistan is situated on an historical trade and it has natural resources ,which is limited from all the sectors .The
most successful regime is largely dependent on the external aid from international benefactors and each successful
regime most of who were interested but with own reasons that was influencing Afghanistan internal affairs.
Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world and this is due to few decades of war which disrupted the
economy which mainly is agriculture.

Afghanistan has only 12% arable land and the country's economy depends on agriculture and livestock so the rural
peoples entirely depend on seeds, fertilizer, storage facility and marketing channels. After they realized, BRAC
Afghanistan commenced its Agriculture and Livestock Development Program me in the year 2003. The program me
aims to improve the livelihoods and nutritional status for small and marginal farm household through technology
transfer which has given high priority for poverty alleviation, generating income and employment opportunity
creation. Activities involved in agriculture program me are wheat seed and fertilizer distribution, vegetables seed
and agriculture tools, silo distribution to farmers, integrated pest management, hybrid maize cultivation and small
scale kitchen gardening in the homesteads BRAC Poultry and Livestock Program me.

They therefore made an initiative of funding the farmers in order to ensure productivity and continuity continues
within the people and also to improve their living standards by introduction of Small Enterprise Project (SEP)
which was initiated to provide loans to small enterprises with growth potential. The program aims to
generate income and create new employment through enterprise development in the rural and semi
urban areas of Afghanistan. This improves there living standards and enables to improve on their laying
tactics and Since 2002, AKDN’s Rural Microcredit Program me has disbursed more than 90,000 loans,
totaling more than US$71 million. With nearly 30,000 active clients, the program me now operates in
more than 50 rural districts across 12 provinces to create income-generating businesses and to
encourage entrepreneurship. Therefore the people around can be able to purchase the feeds for their
animals without and difficulty and thus improving on their productivity and living standard

The objectives of the program me is to provide loan through a simple loaning process that encourages
rural people to come forward and take loan without delay, provide opportunity to small/medium
enterprises that fall within the working area of the BRAC Afghanistan Microfinance program me,
motivate small/ medium entrepreneurs in the rural and urban areas to do better, thus creating job
opportunities, and provide valuable information about production and marketing of products.

Governments training on agriculture with Credit Support Program me (ALDCSP)

The government has also initiated trainings’ with the Agriculture & Livestock Develop
ALDCSP program me aiming at improving households' social and economic condition through the
provision of training and technical support to the agriculture and livestock borrowers. Small and
marginal farmers are the main target of BRAC's ALDCSP.

BRAC Afghanistan believes that there is enough scope for the farmers to sell their products in local
markets. It has prompted the importance of animals and poultry development in the country, this
therefore enables the farmers to be able to improve on their productivity and also to improve on their
marketing tactics .

The objectives of the program me is to generate income and create employment opportunities for small
and marginal farmers, to develop existing entrepreneurs by providing technical assistance and financial
support, and to increase agricultural production and practices.

Threats to the providers

There has been threats in the sector which the poor people cannot be able to handle and this is due to
lack of finances but the government has introduced treatment facilities for the agricultural sector ,this
mainly helps to improve on the productivity and quality of production and this has been done by
Brac ,which has established four livestock clinics, which are: two in Parwan (Jabul Siraj and Bagram
district), one in Nangarhar (Shukrod district) and Balkh (Balkh District). Due to unavailable of livestock
animal BRAC Afghanistan has closed Bagram livestock clinic. Each clinic has one Doctor of Veterinary
Medicine with one Para-veterinarian. BRAC livestock clinics are now serving treatment facility of
household animal as well as cluster wise vaccination program through mobile clinics in order to reduce
mortality of livestock with the help of the DVM and Para-veterinarian. They also visit the beneficiaries'
households. In an addition BRAC has assisted two government livestock clinics after receiving request
letter from the General Director of the Department of Veterinary. BRAC has supplied some selective
Medicines and Equipment to the Government Livestock Clinics of Kapisa.

The government has also encouraged an implementation of the broiler rearing which does not require a
lot of expenses, but it’s a source of income for the poor women, this is because the rural production
contributes to a higher percentage of the production of the Afghanistan government. They therefore have
been concentrating in training the women on broiler rearing in Kabul and Parwan provinces with aims to
produce broiler. BRAC has carried out training on different aspect of broiler rearing like advantages of
rearing high quality variety of day-old-chicks, rearing house and management, letter use, brooding,
feeding, disease prevention and vaccination. After receiving the three days training, the women have
been implementing broiler chicken rearing activities for table consumption as well as for selling. Each of
the trained women has been provided 100 no's day-old-chicks and necessary feed, feeder and drinker as
well as medicine and vaccination facility. Although it was not available in Afghanistan but BRAC
arranged to buy these inputs from Pakistan .

Education
BTRC offers a variety of training courses in different areas of development. The training courses are
arranged for the grassroots level workers, supervisors, senior and mid-level managers of development
organizations and government ministries and of them Development Management, Effective Office
Management, Writing, Report writing, Effective Communication Skills, Gender Awareness and
Advocacy courses are mostly wanted. Not only respective venues sometime BTRC Trainers conducted
some highly affected courses by marketing to other International NGOs and their venues. These courses
are conducted by professional facilitators who have gained considerable experiences in the art and
technology of training in Bangladesh and around the world. The training staffs are experienced in
various fields of development, and there has been the presence of AKDN has pioneered the provision of
innovative and flexible microfinance products in Afghanistan, which play an important role in driving
economic development in rural areas. One aim is to discourage the cultivation and trafficking of opium
and heroin. Microfinance has eased the burden on indebted farmers, in some cases allowing them to
buy back land sold to drug barons.

Since 2002, AKDN’s Rural Microcredit Programme has disbursed more than 90,000 loans, totaling
more than US$71 million. With nearly 30,000 active clients, the program me now operates in more
than 50 rural districts across 12 provinces to create income-generating businesses and to encourage
entrepreneurship.

In 2004, AKDN launched the First Microfinance Bank of Afghanistan to operate primarily in urban
areas, the first bank of its kind under the country’s new regulatory structure. FMFB provides
microfinance to small businesses, helping Afghans to create productive and sustainable sources of
income. It is the largest microfinance provider in Afghanistan, serving some 38,000 borrowers and
savers in towns and cities in eight provinces. Since 2002, it has disbursed more than 60,000 loans,
totaling

Agriculture & Livestock Development and Credit Support Program me (ALDCSP)

ALDCSP program me aiming at improving households' social and economic condition through the
provision of loans complemented with training and technical support to the agriculture and livestock
borrowers. Small and marginal farmers are the main target of BRAC's ALDCSP.

BRAC Afghanistan believes that there is enough scope for the farmers to sell their products in local
markets. It has prompted the importance of animals and poultry development in the country.

The objectives of the program me are to generate income and create employment opportunities for small
and marginal farmers, to develop existing entrepreneurs by providing technical assistance and financial
support, and to increase agricultural production and practices.

B. DONOR PROGRAMS IN AFGHANISTAN

There are many multilateral and bilateral donors funding assistance of many kinds in Afghanistan. A large
number of these are working in agriculture and enterprise development (usually related to agriculture),
summarized here: the GTZ-funded Project for Alternative Livelihoods (PAL) in eastern Afghanistan;
JICA’s Integrated Rural Development Program in northern and central regions; USAID’s Alternative
Livelihood Programs (ALP) in the northern, eastern, and southern regions, as well as USAID’s
Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED)program working in the northern,
western and southern regions; and numerous NGOs. The Asian

INDUSTRY SUCCESS FACTORS

There has been a good value chain assessment of the poultry subsector conducted by RAMP in 2004
found that 99 percent of Afghanistan’s chickens were raised using a “backyard scavenger system,”
operations almost exclusively owned by women and which was a cheaper way of running up there
projects and there was a High mortality due to disease and low egg production due to poor feeding
rendered the productivity of these
chickens insufficient to meet domestic demand for both eggs and meat. Thus eggs and live birds were
being imported from Pakistan and Iran, and frozen chicken meat from Brazil and the United States to
supply about 90 percent of that was sold in the urban markets.
There has also been many multilateral and bilateral donors funding assistance of many kinds in
Afghanistan. A large number of these are working in agriculture and enterprise development (usually
related to agriculture), summarized here: the GTZ-funded Project for Alternative Livelihoods (PAL) in
eastern Afghanistan; JICA’s Integrated Rural Development program in northern and central regions;
USAID’s Alternative Livelihood Programs (ALP) in the northern, eastern and southern regions, as well as
USAID’s Afghanistan Small and Medium Enterprise Development (ASMED)program working in the
northern, western and southern regions; and numerous NGOs. The Asian Development Bank is funding
the Afghanistan Rural Business Support Project, which will establish Rural Business Support Centers
Village producers sold what surplus eggs and live birds they had locally, or to traders who transported
them to urban markets. There were also some peri-urban producers using a more sophisticated, semi-
commercial approach to rearing chickens. They marketed from their home or through local market
channels.
The government has also supported the industry success a by ensuring that there are ready markets
for the produces and this has therefore reduces the work load of the farmer ,but they can also sell their
produce through the Retailers who start with the women producers who often sell eggs and live chickens directly
to their neighbors or in the nearest periodic market. They might send a male family member to a nearby
peri-urban market to sell to consumers if transport costs are not prohibitive. In fact, the retail distribution
system for eggs is such that they are available nearly anywhere, anytime. Shops sell by the flat (30 eggs),
4-10 in a bag, or singly. Street vendors also sell boiled eggs for a nutritious snack.
Retailing of imported eggs is well organized throughout the urban and peri-urban areas. The
importer/wholesalers have well-developed importing channels as well as distribution channels with retail
shops and street vendors. Most retailers have an exclusive relationship with one egg importer/wholesaler.
As mentioned above, urban retailers sell mostly frozen meat sourced directly from the importers. Live
birds are harder to find. There is no major live poultry market in Kabul. Only about 20 retailers sell live
chickens in the main bazaar and street, with few to be found at the other smaller markets around town.
These live chickens are imported from Peshawar and Punjab in Pakistan by four main importers.

CHALLENGES
There is good market potential for eggs, live chicken, chicken cuts and butchered chickens produced in
Afghanistan for the local market. But careful production planning, execution and marketing are essential
for the success of operations. Several semi-commercial and commercial ventures have failed in the past
few years due to a lack of technical skills in poultry production; the cost and difficulty of securing timely
inputs such as chicks, proper feed mixes and fuel; and inattention to marketing.