Elizabeth Hallinan's blog

I’m just going to say it — people think of Afghanistan as a pile of rocks. I see where the mental image comes from; photos on the news do seem to showcase the sand and rocks in their effort to capture the grittiness of soldiers at war. But I know an Afghanistan of a different color: green.

In northern Afghanistan — where I work on a project promoting improved livelihoods through agriculture, infrastructure and livestock — there is the rich green carpet of potato plants in Takhar, the red-tinged green leaves of saplings in our timber plots in Badakhshan and technicolor green seedlings in the new rice paddies in Baghlan.

Our agriculture projects are not the only opportunities for supporting a greener Afghanistan. Now, we are using ‘greening’ techniques on our infrastructure projects as well. Northern Afghanistan is home to snowy mountains and rushing rivers, and as a result flood protection and erosion control are a major concern. The project builds retaining walls, wash culverts and canals to channel and control the water, but recently we have started looking far upstream to try to address the deforestation and soil erosion that make these floods so devastating.

The Yakatal "super passage" wash culvert in Taloqan, Takhar province, serves as a testing ground for this approach. This massive culvert is 120 meters (almost 400 feet) across and protects a local irrigation canal from being washed out by floods by channeling water up and over the covered canal. The culvert basically serves as a highway that contains the water as it runs downhill. This year, the new culvert contained the spring’s heavy flooding, but the sheer volume of water convinced Takhar Program Manager Kerry Sly of the need to work with the local shura (council) to control flooding at the source.

Yaka Zarang village resident Mohammad Ahmad explains the nature of the problem with relying on super passages alone: “Construction of super passages has its benefits, like quick protection of an area which is under threat of flood. After years, the passage will be destroyed by heavy floods anyway. All heavy floods are caused by consecutive rain fall in naked land which has nothing in its soil, and flood washes out everything from the surface of the land, like top soil and fertile land, and eventually farmers or people can not use that land for anything. Also, the river becomes full of mud and dirt which is washed away from the hills of upper areas.”

The Yakatal village elders remember a time when the hills above the village were covered with trees and shrubs and there was better land for grazing. They were eager to work with Mercy Corps to mitigate the current problems with soil erosion and deforestation to protect their downstream land. The shura agreed that the village would provide labor for starting nurseries, replanting trees and constructing a reservoir, as well as a promise to ensure that no more trees would be felled for fuel.

Mohammad Ahmad explains, “If we cover the area with forest and plants, we can easily reduce the floods' effects. Trees, plants and bushes absorb the water into soil, and roots keep the ground strong not to be swept away by fast rain. If we made terraces around the hills it is another way of reducing the flood flow, in the terraces we can plant pistachio, Russian willow and acacia, and these are all soil erosion controllers.”

With the help of the community, Mercy Corps targeted a 200 hectare (almost 500 acre) area that will be replanted with local varieties appropriate to the current dry conditions — and best suited for preventing erosion and improving soil moisture — such as pistachio, lilac, aspen, juniper, acacia, Russian willow, almond and walnut.

Trees thrive in Afghanistan, if given half a chance. By rebuilding a watershed, the community will restore the horticultural tradition and protect their agricultural land from future floods.

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I picked my way gingerly though the rows of young, green wheat as our host, farmer Ahmed Shah*, the Mercy Corps project manager and a few agriculture experts strode ahead across the field. They gathered around our first spot: a hole about two feet deep and one foot across, into which was placed a single branchless stalk with a mass of roots grafted to the bottom. We took turns holding it straight as shovelfuls of dirt were tossed in and cameras flashed.

Satarbayi almonds are famous in Afghanistan for their high quality and fetch $10 per kilogram at the market. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

An almond tree was born!

Ahmed is already well on his way to converting his wheat fields to almond orchards with the help of Mercy Corps' IDEA-NEW project. Wheat is a staple crop that sells for only about 28 cents per kilogram. Today we planted Satarbayi almonds, which are famous in Afghanistan for their high quality and fetch $10 per kilogram at the market.

Making the switch from wheat to almonds is not simple and does not happen quickly, but the bump in income is substantial. It will be two to three years before the new saplings produce almonds, so in the meantime Ahmed will leave his fields in wheat — which has shallow roots — while the deep-rooted almond trees take their time to produce fruit.

For a farmer, trying out a new type of crop can feel like a big gamble, even if the new crop is much higher value. If he plants wheat, Ahmed is familiar with the process and its challenges and risks, though the payout is low. To encourage Ahmed to undertake the risk of switching to a higher value crop, Mercy Corps provided him with 111 free almond saplings — as well as the fertilizer and tools needed to keep them healthy — which greatly reduced the start-up cost of changing over.

In the coming years, Ahmed will shoulder an increasing percentage of the cost of the orchard. In return for receiving free supplies, he has agreed to serve as a lead farmer and to use his farm as a demonstration plot where other farmers can come to see how he has transitioned out of commodity crops, and receive other agricultural technology trainings, such as orchard layout and tree pruning.

The almonds can be processed on the farm, where the women of the household will remove the green shells to prepare them for sale. Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

IDEA-NEW’s project success is based on the important relationships between lead farmers and those who come to learn at the demonstration plots, as well as on farmers and the suppliers of key inputs, such as fertilizer and seed. In this way, Mercy Corps initial gift of these 111 saplings can be leveraged to improve the capacity of many farmers in the area and strengthen the local market by building demand for high quality agricultural inputs.

Inshallah, in about two and a half years, Ahmed will be making a September harvest of high-value almonds. The almonds can be processed on the farm, where the women of the household will remove the green shells to prepare them for sale. The shells can also be used as feed for livestock, so there is no waste produced. The almonds will be left to dry in Ahmed’s sunny, walled garden and before being sold around Afghanistan and India.

*I’ve changed his name here to maintain his privacy and security.

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