Small-scale agricultural ventures are changing attitudes as well as boosting incomes.
Peaches, apricots and apples have transformed life for Nadia, a 32-year-old from the village of Tajikan in the northern province of Baghlan.
Six years ago she planted an orchard with the aim of becoming a small-scale fruit producer.
“The orchard became productive three years later,” she told IWPR. “Now I make over 1,000 US dollars from the fruit each year, as well as from growing vegetables and selling wood.”
[…] As well as receiving government money, the NSP is supported by the World Bank, the Aga Khan Foundation, the United States development agency USAID and the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund.
Peaches, apricots and apples have transformed life for Nadia, a 32-year-old from the village of Tajikan in the northern province of Baghlan.
Six years ago she planted an orchard with the aim of becoming a small-scale fruit producer.
“The orchard became productive three years later,” she told IWPR. “Now I make over 1,000 US dollars from the fruit each year, as well as from growing vegetables and selling wood.”
It has not been easy. As well as obstacles in marketing her produce, Nadia worries about security and has to contend with prejudice because she is a woman.
“It really irritates me when I meet shopkeepers to talk about the selling my fruit and they tell me, ‘Go and send a man from your family because you are a woman.’”
Agriculture, a central pillar of Afghanistan’s economy, has traditionally been dominated by men. Women are sometimes recruited to work the fields or tend livestock, but have no say in any of the profits.
Source: By Arzo Mohammadai – IWPR
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