Afghanistan: Panj-Amu River Basin Sector Project

Agriculture, natural resources and rural development / Agricultural drainage - Irrigation - Rural flood protection

Afghanistan is one of the least developed countries in the world. The poverty headcount rate is 39% and the percentage of food insecure population is 33%. Average gross domestic product (GDP) per capita during the 2011-2015 period is $634, causing Afghanistan to rank 168th out of 183 countries reviewed by the World Bank. Agriculture is Afghanistan's major sources of livelihood, employs 79% of the national work force, and is a significant source of national income. Agriculture contributes significantly to Afghanistan's GDP, although this has been decreasing from 38% in 2002 to 22% in 2014 . The country's major staple crop is wheat, representing 60% of Afghan's daily dietary intake. With total production output of 5.37 million tons in 2015, Afghanistan relies heavily on import to meet its population's dietary energy requirements with an import dependency of 16% of total food demand. This level of dependency is growing 11% per annum. Food insecurity is prevalent throughout the country, but most critical in the north where food insecurity index is as high as 73% in the provinces of Badakhshan and Bamyan.

Afghanistan is a dry country with precipitation falling as snow falls in the winter, while crops require water in the summer. Limited access to irrigation water is a key binding constraint to agricultural productivity, besides low quality inputs and traditional agricultural practices. While the vast majority of Afghans depends on agriculture for a living, only 12% (or 64.4 million ha) of the country's terrain is arable. Rain-fed area is currently of 3.7 million ha and irrigated area 3.8 million ha, each representing about 5-6% of total arable land. Of the total irrigated area of 3.8 million ha, it is estimated that around 2.2 million ha are single or double cropped every year, with balance of 1.6 million ha being irrigated if and when water is available, at intervals of 2-6 years.

Sporadic irrigation has been the primary cause for crop yields below the world average, for example average wheat yield of 2.03 tons/ha in 2013 (world average of 3.27 tons/ha) and average rice yield 2.5 tons/ha in 2013 (world average of 4.5 tons/ha). Irrigated yields are observed to be significantly greater than rain-fed yields, for example, the irrigated wheat yield is 2.5 times that of rain-fed. With irrigated areas producing 69% of total wheat outputs, irrigation water is a critical high value factor for yield improvement.

Expansion of new irrigated areas has been examined on a number of projects, but high capital cost outlays make it economically infeasible. Improving access to irrigations water on existing irrigation systems also has number of constraints, including: (i) inequitable distribution of water both at the river level (between schemes) as a result of lack of capacity, tools and resources within the government for river basin management, and at the command area level (within schemes) as a result of lack of formal consultation and distribution mechanisms (user rights) and breakdown of the mirab structure; and (ii) dilapidated and inefficient state of irrigation infrastructure due to inadequate operation and maintenance (O&M), a lack of capacity to scale up investment due to inadequate water use fee collection and government capacity and resources, and damage to infrastructure through flooding as a result of upstream erosion leading to high abstraction rates and increased flash flooding, as a result of poor upper catchment conservation.

Water allocation and availability improved

Command areas enhanced

Watersheds properly managed and protected

The PMU will ensure stakeholder consultations with communities and affected parties are held.

Project design process and feasibility study are on-going