August 2015—In Arghistan, it is a crop of fresh, locally grown vegetables that symbolizes change.

Until recently, Arghistan—a district in the southern Afghan state of Kandahar that borders Pakistan—imported most of its vegetables from Pakistan and grew poppy instead. It was the only crop that would flourish without water or modern farming techniques, there being no water in Arghistan’s irrigation canals.

Then, on July 5, 2015, USAID’s Kandahar Food Zone Program taught the district’s farmers how to build and use a greenhouse. 

Rasool Mohammad of Zaranjo village describes how it benefited him and his family: “It was really tough when we were crossing the border for vegetables that we would supply at our local market. There was a high risk of being caught by the Taliban or being arrested by the Pakistani border police. Now we can meet local demand from our greenhouse at different seasons.”

Eleven farmers have been working as a team in the greenhouse every day, tending to the crops and drying any surplus harvest. As part of the USAID training, they also learned solar preservation, which involves sun-drying produce in solar dehydrators.

Some of Arghistan’s farmers are now building small greenhouses of their own. A total of 77 farmers in seven districts of Kandahar have been trained in greenhouse establishment. 

Nearly 800 people have benefited from alternative livelihood activities of the two-year, $18.7 million Kandahar Food Zone Program. The program, which began in July 2013, was designed to strengthen and diversify legal rural livelihoods in targeted districts by addressing the root causes of instability that lead to opium poppy cultivation.

LINKS

Follow @USAIDAfghan, on Facebook, on Flickr, on YouTube