Thanks to an expansion award from the U.S.
Agency for International Development, CNFA's
Afghanistan Farm Service Alliance will bring
crucial agricultural products and services
to 30,000 farm families in 10 additional
provinces, bringing the total impact of the
program to over 75,000 farm families in 17
provinces.
The Afghanistan Farm Service Alliance (AFSA)
has already had tremendous success laying
the foundation for long-term agricultural
and economic growth in Afghanistan,
increasing farmer incomes and strengthening
rural market linkages. Through AFSA, CNFA
has established seven independent privately
owned Farm Service Centers (FSCs) that are
providing farm inputs, services, training,
access to finance and output marketing for
more than 45,000 farm families. The program
has also created 250 new full-time jobs,
trained 16,000 people and increased store
sales by over $25 million.
As in the first phase of the program, which
was active in seven provinces, the expansion
will employ matching grants to establish new
stores, which ensures that owners have a
vested interest in their stores succeeding
and encourages sustainable business models.
The Farm Service Center Model Improves
Productivity and Food Security
Building the rural farm inputs
infrastructure—which includes not just
products like high-quality seeds,
fertilizers and pesticides, but also
services like agricultural extension, access
to credit and post-harvest handling and
marketing—has the potential to reinvigorate
a rural economy fractured due to decades of
political instability. CNFA has applied this
model to great effect in Eastern Europe and
Africa to improve smallholder productivity
and enhance food security, bringing
high-quality services to millions of
smallholder farmers and strengthening rural
economies.
Farm Stores Bring Agricultural Inputs and
Economic Opportunity to Women
The expansion will also build on the success
of the Kabul Women's Farm Service Center,
established by CNFA in February 2010. The
store, entirely staffed and owned by women,
sells products geared toward women's
traditional productive activities, including
handicrafts, food curing and processing,
charcoal making equipment, embroidery and
sewing, jams and jellies, and baking. Social
convention in Afghanistan has long prevented
women from purchasing their own farm inputs
and receiving extension services since most
input supply stores and government extension
programs are staffed entirely by men and are
therefore not accessible to women. The Kabul
Women's Farm Service Center (FSC) will
benefit 16,000 women by offering a unique
opportunity for them to economically empower
themselves through agro-enterprise. The
project expansion will seek out other
opportunities for women-owned stores
throughout the new provinces, whether as
independent stores or as extensions of
provincial stores.
About CNFA: Active in 23 countries, CNFA is
a Washington, D.C.-based, non-partisan,
not-for-profit organization dedicated to
stimulating fair and equitable economic
growth around the world by nurturing
entrepreneurship, private enterprise and
market linkages.
For more information, please contact CNFA
Communications Director Martha James at
mjames@cnfa.org or at (202) 296-3920.
|
