• Poor food consumption: + 16% increase in households since 2006. An additional est. 2.5 million people (1.4 million in rural areas and 1.14 million in urban areas) require food assistance. The number of people not meeting their minimum daily kilocalories intake has increased since 2005, but still 35% of the population currently does not meet its food needs in terms of calories and 46% in terms of dietary diversity. 31% of the Afghan population is food insecure, while 23% of the population is considered borderline food insecure. Breaking the numbers down, the food insecure or borderline insecure are 24% urban, 39% rural, and 46% Kuchi (nomads).
• Severe food access problems: 29% of households face severe food access problems.
  Reportedly, in June 2009, households in the west-central part of the country spent more than 75% of their incomes on food, while the average national proportion of income spent on food is 67
• Most Vulnerable: displaced people; returning refugees and deported migrants; female-headed households and war widows; the nomadic Kuchis; disabled heads of households and the chronically poor. UNAMA Human Rights/OHCHR’s 2009 right to food monitoring project found that women (and not necessarily female-headed households, but females in families where the men have good access to adequate food) have disproportionate access to adequate food, even if the household is not considered vulnerable.

Agriculture:

• Rehabilitation of irrigation and water management;
• Improvements in input supplies (certified seeds and fertilizers) and extension;
• Raising agricultural productivity and resilience to shocks (integrated natural resource management approaches, sustainable land use practices within watersheds, etc
• Capacity building of government staff working on the Government planned Strategic Grain Reserve in areas frequently affected by natural disasters by rehabilitating and reconstructing silos and regional warehouses with equipment for proper food storage and handling.
• Assistance with the establishment of community based storage facilities is needed, to help reduce the post-harvest losses as well as maximize selling prices.
• Additionally integration of smallholder and low income farmers into the market through the purchase of their produces at remunerative prices for food assistance operations.
• Support to establish private sector processing plants which will use local produce for the production of fortified biscuits and blended food.
• Provision of affordable microfinance products and services;
• Improvements in access to animal vaccines and veterinary services;
• Improvements in land tenure rights and the management of common property resources;
• Promoting investments in wheat storage and milling capacity in the private sector;
• Need for promotion of agricultural production, infrastructure and change from illicit to licit crops as well as support to sustainable development of local food security systems and the country’s capacity to reduce hunger;
• Cut post-harvest losses and Integrated Pest Management.

Safety nets:

• Afghanistan currently lacks a well-developed safety net system. Initially, system design should develop a basic structure consistent with the country’s administrative and fiscal capacity, paying explicit attention to targeting and delivery mechanisms.
• Subsequent safety net program implementation should include the development of institutional capacity, payment systems, staffing/administrative arrangements, and public information campaigns.

Elements for strategic response:

• Encourage production of high-value, income elastic export commodities (major dried fruits and nuts) to spur agricultural income;
• Ensure reliable power, water supplies, transport;
• Improve security of land tenure and access to unutilized government land;
• Develop a National Sustainable Land Management Framework centered on community-based integrated watershed development ;
• Engage in developing a national strategy on social protection;
• Improve access to market through access to inputs, local purchases and capacity building
• Improved access to financial services especially for smallholders;
• Improved agriculture and livestock extension service system;
• Improve access to quality agriculture inputs;
• Affordable communications networks
• Gender aspects of access to food
• Improved accountability and access to justice; Abuse of power (no functional judicial system, land use, access to markets etc), corruption (food aid), discrimination (women’s access etc), and lack of person security all affect the enjoyment of the right to food

Government actions and planned actions:

• The Government efforts are guided by the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) and the recently launched National Agriculture Development Framework (NADF)
• In Afghanistan’s 2008/09 budget, US$20 million is set aside as contingency fund for emergencies
• Lowered the tariff on wheat imports from 2.5 % to zero, and reduced tax on staple food items.
• Earmarked US$50 million to buy and import food items from regional markets
• Government-to-government contracts are being negotiated to import wheat from Pakistan and Kazakhstan.
• The Government has increased efforts of procuring food both locally and regionally. Following the drought and high food price crisis in 2008, the Government sought to purchase significant quantities of wheat from neighboring countries in order to respond to immediate needs and establish the beginning of a strategic grain reserve. In 2009, following a strong harvest, the Government also began to purchase food locally for the same purposes.
• The Government wants to establish a strategic grain reserve.
• The Government has expressed strong interest in scaling up irrigation investments.
• Expanding the agricultural regeneration plan through distribution of subsidized improved seeds, fertilizers and insecticides.
• Comprehensive Agriculture and Rural Development
• Emergency Horticulture and Livestock Programmed (EHLP)
• Expand the number of seed enterprises and increase availability of improved wheat seed.
• Distribution of 27,000MT of improved wheat seed together with fertilizer to 550,000 farmers (joint program with partners).