DATES: March 2008 - June 2012

PARTNERS: CNFA

 

The objective of the AFSA project is to work with Afghan partners to develop farm service centers (FSCs), profit-oriented, privately-owned enterprises, intended to provide the agricultural inputs, services and market linkages Afghan farmers need to transition to successful commercial agriculture. USAID is helping create a model for a more efficient supply chain that can deliver sufficient qualities of high-quality product to farmers at lower costs, improving production and creating cost efficiencies. FSCs serve as a node for producer access to market and technical information, output markets, and trade and working capital financing to address the multiplicity of challenges facing Afghanistan’s rural farmers. AFSA’s initial two-year cooperative agreement ended on June 15, 2010, establishing a network of seven FSCs in Kabul, Ghazni, Hilmand, Kandahar, Laghman, Kunar, and Zabul provinces benefiting more than 48,000 Afghan farmers through increased access to agricultural inputs, training, and output markets. The AFSA project was extended for an additional two years to establish ten new FSCs in Nangarhar, Logar, Wardak, Parwan, Kapisa, Takhar, Kunduz, Balkh, Uruzgan, and Nimroz provinces to benefit an additional 35,000 Afghan farmers.