Friday July 8, 2016
Kabul (BNA) With 560,000 hectares of arable lands, but right now being under cultivation over 120,000 hectares, the southeastern province of Farah’s farmers could harvest two-fold wheat increase, this year, an official said. More than 80 percent of the population of the province are formers and engaged in work on the farmland and husbandry, he said but complained about lack of proper market for their products, especially this year’s highly increased wheat yields. Nearly 119,000 tons of wheat had been harvested from this year’s cultivated lands of up to 34,000 hectares in the province, said Eng. Abdul Manan Mateen, provincial agriculture, irrigation and livestock director adding the growth showed an increase of up to 80 percent compared to the last year. The reasons behind the increase, he described have been an on-time distribution of improved seed and chemical fertilizer, using the installed solar water pumps and most importantly proper seasonal rainfalls during this year’s spring, said Mateen who complained about lack of fair market for their wheat yields, lack of irrigation waters forcing the farmers to use the solar water pumps for irrigation of their lands. He also said lack of proper market, low in the wheat price and no plane to provide the farmers with subsidies were among the problems faced by the farmers in the province. the price each 5killo of wheat falls below 80 Afghanis during the harvest, but it reaches to more than 120 Afghanis when needed to be ploughed on the land, he said. There is a need for enough stores to protect the additional wheat seeds as well as a serious need of support from the private sector to process it and moreover failure of the provincial agriculture department to timely distribute improved seeds and chemical fertilizer among the farmers, the director further added. He challenged, if the central government pay attention in the field of stocking, the province would harvest over half a million tons of wheat each year. But, head of provincial wheat dealing section, Sayed Ahmad told that the province’s wheat harvest was unprecedented this year, as it exported high quantity to the nearby provinces of Ghazni, Helmand and Kandahar.
