According to Jerzy W. (2013), agriculture is that kind of activity which joins labour, land or soil, live animals, plants, solar energy and so on; the Minister of Agriculture is the Minister of the beginning of life. So people who are involved with that kind of activity are involved in something special.

In a conference about sustainable development, held at the University of Tsukuba, when my contribution was asked about the matter, before I have said my piece, the moderator herself pointed towards sustainable agriculture in Afghanistan as the key to sustainable development. She was true and absolutely pointed the exact thing. When we talk about economy of Afghanistan, the word ‘agriculture’ unconsciously sparkles in our mind. For this country is an agricultural one, where the sector is still the key contributor to its GDP with about 25%, and feeds about 60% of its total population. Moreover, the export of products which not only bring cash to the country, but also demonstrate and exhibits the country’s picture and feature to the world, however, are mostly agricultural products. The manufacturing sector of a country introduces the true image, the power and the potentials and capabilities of a country. In a globalized and commercialized era, when the name of Japan is taken, people think of Toyota, Suzuki, Panasonic and Sony; when we hear South Korea’s name, we think of Samsung; when it comes to Germany, we think about Volkswagen and BMW; in case of USA, the names of Apple, General Motors and Ford come in our mind, and likewise.  

In case of agricultural productions; USA is known for its Californian almond, maize and strawberry; Turkey for its apricot and cherry; Egypt for its date; China for its apple, wheat and vegetables; Iran for its stone fruit and pistachio; and likewise India, Brazil and Russia for their millet, Banana, Mango and chili pepper; sugar cane and oranges; and barley respectively. But what about Afghanistan? I feel very discontent and unfortunate to say, that our country does not have a good reputation and indeed we have shown a black feature of ourselves to the world. The country, influenced by war, unnatural disasters and political rivalries, is always at the top of opium producers list and with quite a disappointment, has gained a fame this way. This is at a time, when we have many other alternatives for opium cultivation. Our soil has the potential to produce ‘Tashqurghani’ and ‘Kandahari’ pomegranate and introduce this land as the cradle of pomegranate production. Our ‘Sattarbai’ almond can easily compete with Californian almond in terms of quality, if not in quantity and introduce us as the world’s top almond producer, and many other potentials of this sector that can gain a good name for the country, generate income and employ labours. But things are not doing well in this sector. Our saffron is being smuggled across the border of one neighbor, post-harvest techniques practiced over it and then re-exported as the product of that country as the top quality saffron in the world. Our apple and some other fruits are being smuggled to our second neighbor, processed to low quality choice and then sold back in our own markets in much higher prices. These are only a handful of the whole sack. If we think deeply, we will realize that our neighbors enjoy free leasing of our land and free water of our rivers flowing to their farms and dams. They inflict hard labour work to our farmers and in return pay the amount equal to a bare subsistence.

Yes, as Jerzy says, agriculture is that kind of activity which joins labour, land,…, and so on. This sector, in developing countries such as Afghanistan which cannot manufacture non-agricultural commodities, is not only life, but also wealth which helps the life to improve. As George W. Norton & Jeffrey Alwang, in their book of Introduction to Economics of Agricultural Development, (1993) say; “For most developing countries, agricultural development matters for overall economic development. Agricultural development, spurred in part by education, the adoption of new technologies, and institutional improvements, can help stimulate broad-based economic development. The sector provides food, it supplies labor for industry, generates capital either directly or indirectly, including foreign exchange, and it provides a market for nonagricultural-goods-based services. It can potentially provide a direct increase in rural welfare.”

But increasing rural welfare through this sector, which is attributed as life for majorities need a special person to recognize the prominent role of agriculture in economic development of Afghanistan. The person who should take a giant stride to treat agriculture as a serious economic and investment issue. That sort of man is recently nominated by the president for the leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL). He is Assadullah Zamir, a young, highly educated and talented elite whom I call the special person and an appropriate nominee for this key ministry due to two, but strong and enough reasons;

First; Zamir does not need time to orient himself with new environment in MAIL. He has already proved his intellectualities and good leadership skills at MAIL. He is used to articulating fruitful projects and initiating new developmental programs for the improvement of agriculture sector, as the engine of our fragile economy. If we evaluate the activities of agriculture sector of Afghanistan during the past 13 years, whatever improvements have come to this sector, are mostly after the development of National Agricultural Development Framework (NADF) during the period 2007-2009, and with no doubts, almost all the achievements can be attributed to agricultural projects and programs under the General Programs Directorate of MAIL. And Zameer was the director and that special person of this General Directorate.  Projects such as NHLP that generate income for thousands of farmers and convert the horticultural system from a traditional one to a modern one with an outlook to cover all the 34 provinces and contribute in the rural welfare. And drive the sector towards mechanization and commercialization.

Second; throughout history unnatural disasters have been caused by nonproductive politicians meddling in the natural economic order to steal the productivity of some for the benefit of other. Based on this fact, in my perception, one of the main reasons for miss-leading of key governmental institutions and ministries throughout the Karzai regime, was the nomination and selection of either unqualified figures or with inappropriate qualifications. But the nomination of Assadullah Zameer as the Minister for MAIL, along with some other qualified and well experienced young elites; such as Engineer Mahmood Baligh as candidate minister for the Ministry of Public Works (MoPW), and some other qualified and experienced ones are the new beams of hope who are expected to bring about improvement in their assigned ministries. Zameer, who I know more than others, is an economist with graduate degree from one of the most prestigious universities of the world in economics. Now nominated to lead an economic sector, agriculture sector, the engine of the country’s economy.