The State of food security in the Northeast region of Afghanistan: its challenges and future coping strategies
Student name: Mr Murtaza Noori
Guide: Dr Chubamenla Jamir
Year of completion: 2015
Host Organisation: Gawharshad Institute of Higher Education (GIHE), Kabul Afghanistan
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Mr Basir Bita
Abstract: ‘Rights to food’ is recognized as a key element for having an adequate and standard living but in the Northeast region Afghanistan 48.7% of people lives below poverty line and 33.41% of people are food insecure. Notwithstanding, billions dollars of international aid fed in Afghanistan in the past decade, still livelihoods and food security condition in the region has not improved significantly. This study has assessed the state of food security, and identified its challenges and future coping strategies in the Northeast Afghanistan. A detailed study was done on four provinces in Northeast Afghanistan; Badakhshan, Baghlan, Takhar and Kunduz provinces. More than 2/3rd of people in all the four provinces live in rural areas with agriculture as the main source of income. Poverty and food insecurity problems are paramount in the Northeast region due to natural and unnatural factors. Climatic conditions also do not allow for cropping all through the year and hence most of the people suffer from seasonal unemployment. Amongst the four provinces under study, Badakhshan province is the most food insecure with 35.5% of the population classified in Phase3 and 42.5% of population under Phase4 according to the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) of Food Security. 78% of people in this province consume less than 2100 calories per person/ day. While food security is better in the three other provinces, on an average about 18% of people suffer from food insecurity and on average 28.4% of people live below poverty line. High poverty rate, climate vulnerability, natural disasters, low infrastructure, poor sanitation and nutrition are the main challenges to food security in the region. Almost agriculture is the main source of livelihood for 2/3rd of the households, and 1/3rd of households’ livelihood rely on labor force, migrant employment, government employment. Therefore there is need for strategic and sustainable plan for the improvement of livelihood and reduction of food insecurity through farm and non-farm coping strategies.
