Though Afghanistan is an agricultural country, yet this sector is under intense pressure and the condition is worsening with every passing day. It is a sad fact that an agricultural county depends on other nations for meeting its agricultural needs. The condition of farmer is the worst in the region. In our neighboring countries of Pakistan, India and Iran, the owner of land is usually called ‘a landlord’ as he earns enough to live like a lord but in Afghanistan, the landowner is in a fix. He is in loss and does not know how to fix this issue.

This year, the condition of farmers in a number of provinces was really helpless and disappointing when they brought their crops in the market. In Helmand, when melons came to market in large numbers, the supply badly surpassed the demand and the result was the plummeting decline in the prices of melons. In some cases, the melons were so cheap that it was not enough to cover the transport expenses from the farm to the market. It was the case in the production of grapes in a number of northern provinces of the country. The crop of grape was good this year and farmers were happy and confident to earn good income but once again, the difference between the supply and demand resulted in the crash of prices and majority of the farmers were not able to cover their expenses. This is not the case of this year only. The same sad story is repeated time and over again. At one hand, when farmers suffer due to the sharp decline in prices, the general consumers also suffer due to the unbelievable rise in prices due to failed crops and resultant difference between supply and demand. At many occasions, when the crops fail and the supply of a crop or fruit does not meet the requirements of the market, the product disappears from the market, resulting in the sharp rise in its price. The concept of failed crops and difference between supply and demand is not a new thing for farmers in every corner of the world but then government and its agencies interfere to maintain the equilibrium. They not only keep the supply and demand stable but also save farmers from losses and the price of a commodity remains stable, thus saving the consumers from high prices. Unfortunately, this concept is invisible in Afghanistan. Our past and present governments have been so busy in their political and other issues that they never thought of the welfare of farmers or general consumers. Rather, both the farmers and general consumers have been left vulnerable on the mercy of those market forces and rich and strong intermediaries who use the flaws in system and get benefitted from the loss of others. The concerned ministries are either inactive or they do not have sufficient potential and workforce to come into action and bring positive changes in this regard. The situation would remain the same until a government comes into power that should give priority to the miseries of both farmers and consumers. In last 14 years of democracy, a number of international donors and international and local NGOs worked for the progress of agriculture in the country but it was like feeding a person with fish and not teaching him how to fish. No doubt, some praise-worthy work has been done in this regard like the water routes have been paved and improved, the water reservoirs have been improved but in general, they all worked for short-term and temporary projects instead of having a long-term scope and ideology. The impacts of this shortsighted approach can be seen almost everywhere. For example, the farmers were provided with free but imported fertilizer but no efforts were made to establish a factory where fertilizer should be manufactured inside the country. It is the reason why, when the supply of free fertilizer stopped, the farmers were once again at the same point as they were before the project. Millions of dollars were wasted in projects that were meant to benefit a few but the farmers were never in their consideration in launching the project. In the same way, people received free equipment and farming tools of millions of dollars but no effort was made that a competitive market should be established from where our farmers should be able to purchase these things. No actual problems faced by farmers were ever addressed.

The biggest problem faced by our farmers is the lack of an open and competitive market where they should be able to sell their products on reasonable prices. Due to this reason, they are badly exploited by the intermediaries who have made a strong cartel and they always benefit from the loss and helplessness of farmers. It is such a sad fact that the farmer who works the whole year, who provides with all the means of production and who does all the hard work, mostly earns less than those intermediaries who just take products from farmers and hand it over to the shopkeepers or consumers. Until and unless the government does not interfere, the role of intermediaries will remain the same and helpless farmer might not be able to do anything against them.

In a number of countries of the world, government gives special subsidies on agricultural products. Government also announces special tax discounts on products used by farmers in the farm. Similarly, different governments also announce lucrative packages to encourage more and more people to come towards agriculture in an effort to release pressure from urbanization. In Afghanistan, just like other businesses and fields of life, the agriculture is also the victim of the neglect of government and its different organs. High taxes, lack of incentives and discounts and other factors make farming one of the least profitable fields in the country.

Both public and private organs, which are responsible for proper guidance of farmers, are either absent or not working properly as our farmers are unaware of increasing their production, they cannot fight properly with pests, they are not much aware of latest machines and in most cases, they cannot import these machines and tools as taxes and duties are too high.  Lack of access to regional and international markets is also a reason that our farmers are earning less than farmers of those countries who have access to these markets. In some cases, our farmers do not have access even to other cities and towns of the country due to unavailability of proper network of roads. Very recently, the network of roads has greatly improved but it is still poor in the far-flung rural areas and the agricultural products get rotten before they reach to the market.

With all these problems, our farmers are left with no other option except to switch to other fields of life. Many of them have moved to cities in search of other business opportunities. In a number of provinces, they have started the lucrative cultivation of opium and addictive drugs as they can earn better from these crops. It will take many decades before we become a successful industrial country but it is easy to work on our already established sector of agriculture and in this regard, the biggest responsibility lies on the shoulders of government to bring professional people in the concerned ministry to change the entire scenario.