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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 KABUL 000394 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SA/FO AMB QUINN 
NSC FOR DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: AHARRIMAN/KAMEND 
DOD FOR DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY COUNTERNARCOTICS: MLONG 
USDA FOR DEPUTY SECRETARY: CCONNERS 
ONDCP FOR POLICY ADVISOR: RAGRESTI 
USAID FOR AA/ANE:JKUNDER, DAA/ANE: MWARD, ANE/SAA KAY FREEMAN, 
SKEYVANSHAD, NMADHAV 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID AMGT AF
SUBJECT:  AFGHANISTAN AGRICULTURE MOVING FORWARD: PART I 
 
This is the first cable in a three-part series that describes 
the present state of agriculture in Afghanistan and what the 
donor community, led by USAID and USDA, are doing to revitalize 
this sector. The respective components are described below: 
?Part I covers the importance of the agriculture sector to 
the reconstruction of Afghanistan, the Ministry of 
Agricultures new Master Plan, the reorganization of the 
Ministry of Agriculture, and donor coordination. 
?Part II covers agricultural research and extension, 
progress in privatizing animal health and veterinary 
services, management of natural resources, and programs to 
integrate Afghanistans nomadic population into the 
reconstruction process. 
?Part III covers USAID-funded programs designed to promote 
growth of a market-led, value chain agricultural sector, 
capacity building initiatives involving U.S. land-grant 
universities, USDA programs, communications and agro 
development, and a vision of the way forward. 
 
¶1. Summary:  Developing the agriculture sector in Afghanistan is 
critical for economic growth and for tackling opium poppy 
oppy 
cultivation.   The Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and 
Food (MAAHF), Mr. Obaidullah Ramin, has begun to provide 
leadership to rebuild the agriculture sector in recent months. 
Agriculture development is now in a better position to fuel 
expansion of the economy. 
 
2.The Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food, Mr. 
Obaidullah Ramin, is providing direction to rebuild the 
agriculture sector.  Minister Ramin initiated an institutional 
restructuring of the Ministry and the preparation of an 
Agricultural Master Plan.  The latter consists of a 
comprehensive agricultural development strategy and investment 
framework to guide reconstruction efforts.  There is now strong 
and dynamic leadership in the Ministry of Agriculture. Donor 
coordination receives active engagement directly from the 
Minister. The Ministry of Agriculture is now in a better 
position to support agricultural development and broad-based 
economic growth. 
 
3.Key areas of progress in the agriculture sector include: 
: 
capacity building, promoting market-led agriculture development, 
animal health and privatizing veterinary services, and 
strengthening natural resource management. Despite progress, 
considerable challenges remain.  Building an effective research 
and extension system, extending rural financial services, and 
eliminating opium poppy cultivation are priorities.  As 
Afghanistan moves from post-conflict and crisis management, more 
long-term sustainable development planning is needed. 
Addressing the challenges of Afghanistans agricultural 
reconstruction will require sustained capacity building of the 
Government of Afghanistan and long-term donor assistance with 
clear performance benchmarks.  Institutional and programmatic 
challenges to rebuild agriculture are consistent with the 
recommendations of donors and USG efforts through USAID and 
USDA.  End summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
IMPORTANCE OF THE AGRICULTURE SECTOR IN RECONSTRUCTION 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
4.The Government of Afghanistan recognizes that economic 
growth is a key factor for poverty reduction and that 
agriculture plays an important role in this process.  The 
agriculture sector, which has been severely affected by years of 
war and neglect, provides much of the livelihood of 80 percent 
of the countrys population and accounts for more than half of 
gross domestic product (GDP).  Given the countrys dependence on 
agriculture, the rate of recovery in the sector will largely 
determine the nations overall rate of economic recovery and 
poverty reduction.  Improved agricultural productivity and 
growth are central to reconstruction.  At the same time, 
attention to rural non-farm economic activities are also 
important. 
 
5.To achieve the Governments development goals, economic 
growth must be accelerated to sustain an increase of an 
estimated six percent per year growth in the agriculture sector. 
ctor. 
Higher growth rates in agricultural productivity will directly 
promote broad-based economic growth, reduce rural poverty, and 
conserve natural resources.  Growth in productivity must be 
based on new applications of science, technology, and 
information, and large-scale investments in agriculture 
development. 
 
6.Afghanistan reconstruction requires a national strategy 
that raises the profile of agriculture development, effectively 
extends donor assistance to Afghan farmers and supports and 
attracts private sector investment.  An effective agriculture 
strategy fosters broad-based economic growth in rural areas 
comprehensively, forges alliances between stakeholders, and 
takes advantage of emerging market opportunities.  A national 
agriculture program in Afghanistan requires multidisciplinary 
and pluralistic approaches to local economic development, 
poverty reduction, social and gender equity, natural resource 
management, and good governance.  Reconstruction efforts need to 
move away from short-term, sector-by-sector approaches for the 
sustained reduction of rural poverty and improved economic 
growth.  Fortunately, Afghanistan now has a comprehensive 
national agricultural development strategy and program in place 
to guide reconstruction efforts and promote long-term 
investments. 
 
--------------------------------- 
AGRICULTURE MASTER PLAN FINALIZED 
--------------------------------- 
7.The Agriculture Master Plan was just endorsed by the 
Economic Subcommittee of the Cabinet of the Government of 
Afghanistan (GOA) as a comprehensive development blueprint for 
the sector that identifies priorities for investment.  The Chief 
Economic Advisor to President Karzai, Dr. Ishaq Naderi, is a 
strong champion of the Master Plan and an ardent advocate of the 
pro-growth approach adopted by the Plan.   For Dr. Naderi, 
agriculture growth is central to his vision for the economic 
transformation of Afghanistan and he supports large investments 
in agriculture including the rehabilitation of rural roads and 
irrigation systems.  Moreover, agriculture figures prominently 
in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (NDS) interim 
paper to be presented in the London Conference. 
 
8.Supported by USAID, the UKs Department for International 
Development (DFID), the European Union (EU), the World Bank and 
Asian Development Bank, the Master Plan was generated through a 
participatory process that included input from both the 
provincial and central levels.  Committees of Afghans and 
expatriate advisors worked together to prepare the Plan, 
completed in November 2005. 
 
9.The Master Plan is comprehensive.  It emphasizes 
commercial, market oriented agriculture.  It also includes 
actions for improving food security through support to wheat 
farming systems and a range of direct action targeted to poor 
people to ensure adequate nutritional status.  Virtually all 
farmers and parts of the country are expected to benefit.  The 
he 
Master Plan gives broad treatment to poverty reduction including 
direct action programs to reach the poor.  It emphasizes 
environmental protection, the needs of the large nomadic 
pastoralist (kuchi) population, and improving natural resource 
management and reforestation. 
 
10.The Master Plan identifies a number of key priorities and 
cross-cutting themes for immediate action and for sequencing 
activities for longer-term development.  With a projected 
investment of US$1.3 billion over the next five-year period, the 
Plan is oriented to economic growth and engagement with the 
private sector.  It is designed to provide six percent overall 
growth rate in the agriculture sector and a doubling of farm 
incomes in 12 years, which should contribute greatly to reducing 
poverty, eliminating opium poppy cultivation, and creating a 
prosperous rural economy.  As such, the Master Plan provides a 
strategic roadmap for accelerating agricultural growth and the 
consequent transformation of Afghanistans rural economy. 
 
11.Accelerating agriculture growth in Afghanistan requires 
resources to be focused on a few key priorities.  The Master 
Plan identifies the following as key priorities: (a) 
horticulture, (b) livestock, and (c) cereals for food security. 
The Master Plan is clear that income generation in the high 
value perennial horticulture sector is essential to the solution 
to macro-economic problems as well as rural prosperity and 
poverty reduction.  Perennial horticulture will account for 
nearly one-third of all agricultural growth in the Master Plan 
strategy.  The Master Plan elaborates a feasible program by 
identifying seven, perennial horticulture crops that could, 
conservatively, add nearly US$1 billion to annual exports in a 
ten-year period, and a very conservatively estimated cumulative 
US$264 million to government tax revenues in that period. 
Agriculture growth and its multipliers to the rural non-farm 
m 
economy will account for nearly three quarters of employment 
growth and poverty reduction  with roughly one-third of that 
total effect coming from the export oriented, commercialized 
priority horticulture commodities. 
 
12.A balanced rural development strategy requires attention to 
a number of cross-cutting issues.  In the Master Plan, the 
interventions associated with the integration of these issues 
are clearly visible in the strategies to address the commodity 
sub-sector priorities.  These cross-cutting themes include: (a) 
management of natural resources, (b) research and extension, (c) 
farmer associations and community participation, (d) rural 
finance, and (e) gender. 
 
13.The priorities in the Master Plan are a guide for the 
private sector.  Rapid commercialization requires large 
investment in irrigation, rural roads, rural electrification 
and, for example, in the Shomali Plains in Parwan Province, the 
need for de-mining.  Those physical investments must be linked 
ed 
with the agricultural commercialization priorities.  That in 
turn requires coordination at the highest levels of government 
with the Ministry of Agriculture. 
 
14.The Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for implementing 
the Plan.  With limited technical staff resources, the Ministry 
will require substantial training as well as technical 
assistance to fill the gap until trained Afghans can take over. 
The Master Plan allocates resources for training the next 
generation of Afghan agriculturists; providing technical 
assistance for policy formulation and planning; for building 
regulatory mechanisms; and for improving the enabling 
environment for private sector growth and investment. Donors and 
multilateral institutions agree that the Master Plan is both 
ambitious in its goals and realistic in its approach. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
STRENGTHENED LEADERSHIP IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
15.The Minister of Agriculture has assumed a strong leadership 
role.  He has grown in the job rapidly and has taken charge 
after a short time in office, extending his leadership 
throughout the Ministry.   He is supportive of private sector 
and market-led approaches to rebuilding the agriculture sector 
and is engaged with donors.  The Minister is committed to making 
the Ministry of Agriculture effective and well respected. 
Minister Ramin has a comprehensive view of the direction the 
Ministry should go; has set clear objectives; works hard to 
achieve them; and motivates staff in the process. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
RESTRUCTURING OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE 
-------------------------------------------- 
16.The Ministry of Agriculture is restructuring itself to make 
it more efficient and responsive to the current needs of Afghan 
farmers and to be better able to utilize international donor 
assistance.   It is the only Ministry to complete Phase II of 
f 
the priority reform and restructuring (PRR) process, that 
entails restructuring and re-grading Ministry staff.   As part 
of this process, an agreement was reached with the Civil Service 
Administration that the Ministry would only keep six general 
departments in the headquarters and transform its field offices 
to efficient institutions that respond effectively to farmers 
and agro-business clients and provide technical advice to ensure 
the quality of agricultural inputs and outputs.   Based on the 
new approved structure, the Ministry in Kabul now consists of 
six general departments: (a) Extension Economic and Applied 
Research; (b) Policy Economic Analysis and Planning, (c) Natural 
Resource Management, (d) Food, Agro-Industry and Market 
Development, (e) Quality Control, and (f) Finance and 
Administration. 
 
17.Still, the capabilities of staff varies greatly, with 
management skills being quite limited.  The Ministers office is 
well staffed and running efficiently.  The Planning Department 
t 
also has a solid core of competent staff, but needs to expand. 
However, Many of the other departments are weakly staffed. 
Staff evaluations are underway to identify staff training needs 
in order to upgrade staff quality and competence.  Donor 
assistance is necessary in the foreseeable future to continue to 
build capacity of Ministry staff. 
 
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IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT TO MERGE WITH AGRICULTURE MINISTRY 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
18.The GOA recently decided to merge the Department of 
Irrigation, currently with the Ministry of Water and Power, with 
the Ministry of Agricultures Natural Resource Department, a 
move long anticipated. Merging the Irrigation Department into 
the Ministry of Agriculture will provide for greater synergy and 
integration of agriculture productivity activities with 
irrigation rehabilitation efforts. 
 
----------------------------------- 
DONOR COORDINATION GREATLY IMPROVED 
D 
----------------------------------- 
19.Partly as a result of the Master Plan process and the 
restructuring of the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as the 
growing leadership role played by the Minister of Agriculture, 
there is good collaboration among donors and harmonization of 
development strategies in support of the GOAs development 
objectives.  Donor coordination in the agriculture sector is 
vastly improved compared to a year ago.  The Minister now chairs 
a bi-weekly donor coordination meeting that brings together the 
major donors in the agriculture sector to discuss important 
policy and agriculture reconstruction issues, share information 
on existing projects and new initiatives, and to facilitate 
dialogue among all interested stakeholders.  This is welcome 
progress and represents a significant break from the past. 
Greater synergy and complimentary endeavors by the donors in 
future agriculture reconstruction efforts are now possible. 
 
20.Coordination among the different GOA ministries and 
nd 
agencies concerned with agriculture and rural development and 
economic growth (i.e., Agriculture, Water and Power, Rural 
Rehabilitation and Development, National Environmental 
Protection Agency, Commerce, Higher Education) remains a serious 
challenge.  These issues cut across sectors and government 
agencies.  Mechanisms to establish effective inter-agency 
coordination and address them will demand new institutional 
capacities and incentives.  The Ministry of Agriculture also now 
has to start paying more attention to the expectations and 
requests of members of Parliament. 
 
NORLAND