Project description

Title: Supporting reconstruction in selected regions of north eastern Afghanistan
Commissioned by: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Country: Afghanistan
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development
Overall term: 2008 to 2010

Context

Many families in the rural areas of Takhar and Kunduz provinces live in poverty. More than 40 % of Afghan children are chronically malnourished. Rain-fed agriculture does not yield enough to feed families adequately. Beekeeping has proven particularly suitable as a source of food and income in these regions. Poultry farming offers similar benefits.

Women were systematically excluded from public life under Taliban rule, meaning that even today they have few means of generating their own income. Poultry farming and beekeeping are particularly suitable sources of income for women because they can be performed close to the home.

Objective

People living in selected regions of Kunduz, Takhar and Badakhshan provinces have access to better infrastructure and basic social services.

Approach

GTZ’s development-oriented emergency and transitional aid (DETA) team is supporting beekeeping and poultry farming in the provinces of Takhar and Kunduz on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). In the district of Farkhar, the creation of a beekeepers’ cooperative was encouraged. More than 200 farmers have been trained in beekeeping and have received equipment to help them succeed in self-employment. A few beekeepers have also been educated as trainers to share their expertise. In addition to beekeeping, GTZ is supporting poultry farming in Takhar and Kunduz. Training sessions have so far taken place in five districts of Takhar and in two districts of Kunduz. All trainees subsequently received 25 chicks and basic equipment for breeding.

Results achieved so far

Beekeeping and poultry farming are adding considerably to people’s incomes in rural areas. Women in particular are benefiting from these programmes. Family nutrition is improving. Training in beekeeping or poultry farming is providing families with the long-term prospect of improving their own situation for themselves. Regional economic growth is being stimulated.

Download

• Development-oriented Emergency and Transitional Aid
  Leaving behind confl ict, disaster and long-term crises (2010)
  en-factsheet-reconstruction-afghanistan.pdf, 0.22 MB (English)