Role Of Women In Afghanistan Development 

In 1st step the NRVA surveys conducted in 2013-2014 and 2016-2017 will be reviewed to compare the women involvement in labour workforce during the years with a special focus on agriculture sector. This will give an understanding of the potential that agriculture sector has, for women mainstreaming. Then the ANPDF and NPPs will be reviewed it will give the clear understanding government approaches, how government is doing for women mainstreaming in agriculture sector and why gender mainstreaming is important for government. It will also give understanding of the impact of gender mainstreaming on economic growth. Then National strategy on Women in Agriculture will be analysed to know government plans about women empowerment in agriculture sector. The analysis of NPPs, ANPDF and National Strategy on Women in Agriculture will give a clear knowledge of strengths, weakness, opportunities and treats that women have in agriculture sector. Then the reports and researches on similar topics, published by World Bank and other donors will be reviewed. This will give the clear cut idea of women involvement in agriculture and livestock activities, women’s role in family income generation and rural food security, causes that make women limited to initial stages of value chain. The impact of these causes on women income earning and workforce. It will also help to provide evidence based recommendations in this paper.

After documentary review, it is planned to conduct 5 informal interviews with relevant government officials, consultants working on WEE and Comprehensive agriculture NPPs in Kabul-Afghanistan to know the current status of implementation and challenges to implement women mainstreaming. 4 informal interviews will be conducted with women lead farmers in Nangarhar Province. Nangarhar is a province located in east region of Afghanistan, which is known as ever green province because of its suitable weather and soil for agriculture production. It has growing season throughout the year. Almost 80% rural population is involved in agriculture here. Women are involved in kitchen gardens, green houses, livestock processing and other field activities here. These women also earn income by selling their products . Chosen Nangarhar province is on the basis of easy access.

Agriculture remains the most important source of employment for women globally. Aggregate data show that women comprise on average 43% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries (FAO, 2011). In 2015, one quarter of all economically active women were engaged in agriculture globally (ILO, 2016, p. 23). At the same time, scholars have been paying attention to how gender gaps constrain productivity and growth in agriculture (World Bank 2014). Gaps be- tween male and female farmers pertaining to access to productive resources, such as land, credit, and technology have been found to reduce yields in farms and the productivity of farms, lowering overall output (ILO, 2016, p. 40). (Madina Junossuva 2018)

Most people in Afghanistan make their living by being involved in different agricultural activities. According to official statistics, 45% of households benefit from different agricultural activities, and for 28.5% of households, the primary source of income comes from agriculture (CSO, 2017b). (Madina Junossuva 2018) (Placeholder1) In 2013, in some regions such as Zabul, Urozgan, Wardak, and Bamiyan more than 70% of the labour force was engaged in agriculture (World Bank, 2018). However, agriculture also remains disorganized from the perspective of private sector development Due to the underdev (Madina Junossuva 2018) elopment of the private sector in agriculture, in many cases, people engage in agricultural activities informally, which results in them not being officially registered as employees or not being properly paid. This kind of informal employment practice is widespread in opium production, one of the most challenging agricultural activities in Afghanistan (UNODC, 2017). (Madina Junossuva 2018)

Women engagement in agriculture sector in Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan.

Women in rural area of Afghanistan has a sound base of indigenous agriculture knowledge, which enable them to continue production despite of external shocks (natural disasters).(MAIL 2015-2020) For example, livestock functions as a source of sustainable livelihoods, savings as assets that can be accumulated, protection against seasonal changes and insurance in times of disasters. Women are responsible for all livestock-related activities from breeding, caring for new-born and sick animals. Women are collecting fodder, feeding to milking, and making dairy products such as kurt (dried yoghurt balls), milk and butter. (Ganish, Kohistani, Azami, 2013) Many women are engaged in spinning wool. Some use the wool from the sheep for making carpets and rugs. One of best example in East region of Afghanistan (Nangarhar, Laghman, Kunar and Nooristan provinces) is Sharifa Ahmadzai Carpet making center. This center had more than 300 women workers in 2014 (NWBC, 2014).

About 90% of backyard poultry owners are women, the poultry products such as eggs and meat are sufficient for family use. Women often sell the surplus of poultry and livestock in neighborhood and in local markets. Women are traditionally involved in fruit and vegetable cultivation and a series of post-harvest crop processing activities. These activities include cleaning and drying vegetables and fruits (grapes, raisins and saffron)(Ganish, Kohistani, Azami, 2013).

Women in Nangarhar are traditionally involved in weed picking, stone picking, irrigation, harvesting and post harvesting activities. The emergence of kitchen gardens in different villages of Nangarhar province provided women with the excellent opportunity to improve and sustain their position in lower (production) stage of value chain. In 2016 Nangarhar Directory of Agriculture, Irrigation and livestock (DAIL) like other provinces of Afghanistan distributed more than 200 kitchen garden kits to women. The kit comprised of seasonal vegetable seeds, agricultural instruments and drip irrigation systems to produce vegetables to fulfil family daily needs. NGOs like Natural Horticulture and Livestock Program (NHLP) are distributing seeds to promote kitchen gardening. Afghanistan Agriculture Extension Project II (AAEP-II) also established Formal Field Schools in different provinces of Nangarhar to increase production and income earning (Anonymous, 2018).

Records from Afghanistan Lands Authority shows that almost all land is registered in the name of the male head of household and that less than 2% of women own land, and most of those women are widows. The reasons for low rates of land ownership include strong social and customary barriers to property ownership by women Afghan Ministry of Justice Estimates, 90 % of Afghans decide land rights according to customary laws. For this reason, few Afghan women are able to capitalize on their right to inherit and own property (Lemmon, G. T. (2017). The kitchen gardens had overcome the need of large pieces of land for production. Kitchen gardening can easily be done from 10m2-100m2 land. Women can easily use their yards to cultivate vegetables for their family use without need for large piece of land. The vegetables and fruits from kitchen garden contribute to the enhancement of family nutrition and improve food security in rural areas. The women can also sell the surplus from kitchen garden, this also enable them to increase family’s income (AAEPII, 2016). (See Figure 5) which is from one of Kitchen garden from Chaknowri District of Nangarhar Province established with the support of AAEPII. The women are involved in vegetable production in her yard.

Women in different districts had established informal Agricultural Self-Help groups with the help of project like (AAEP-II) in 2015-2016. Agricultural Self-Help group consists of 20-25 women from a village. They gather on weekly bases in a place selected by their leader. Each woman also contributes 0.5-1.00 USD on weekly bases which they get back after 1 year turn by turn. The women use this money for family use, to purchase chicken, goats or seeds. Although most of the groups are not active after the project. (AAEPII, 2016). This lack of sustainability in projects is caused due to two reasons. Firstly women are not financially stable so that after end of support from projects in the form women cannot afford the expenses for inputs which results in no sustainability. Secondly government does not take the ownership of the projects. There is no follow up of the achievements after the project by any party. Due to lack of proper guidance and follow up the projects ends with no sustainability. This problem leads to another problem which is, each new project starts its work from zero point. New project does not consider the work done by previous donor and they start their work anew (ABID, 2016)

Other main problem face by women is, women have to spend more time on household activities. This situation prevents women to spend time on farming or non-farming activities, gaining trainings for new skills, and also preventing them from trading activities (Afghanistan Central Statistics, 2017).

Restrictions on women’s movement also prevent them from getting new skills and education. Women education rate is just 19.9% compare to male which is 49.4% (Afghanistan Central Statistics 2017). This shows that majority of women are uneducated. Since 2015 Nangarhar University Agriculture Faculty has only 3-5 female students. Since 2012 Nangarhar faculty has just 2 female graduates that do not have any formal or informal jobs ( AAEPII-Nangarhar, 2016) So a major part of women population cannot take part in formal agricultural related job (extension services, research jobs, NGO work etc.). There is only one female extension worker in Nangarhar DAIL.

Women in Nangarhar province are not involved in decision making process of Agricultural activities. Male decides which crop to cultivate, which animal to buy, which inputs and instruments to use etc.(Anonymous, 2018).

There are more than 40 registered women cooperatives with Nagarhar Directory of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (DAIL). They are involved in poultry, livestock, processing, making wool from skin of sheep’s for carpet weaving, each of them has in (X)(waiting for data) number of members (Anonymous, 2018).

There is absence of female extension worker in Nangarhar DAIL. Nangarhar DAIL has only 1 female employee in home economic department. There is 4 contract base employees without agricultural educational background which as extension workers that responsible to provide farmers with best advices regarding new agricultural skills, methods, inputs. The lack of skilled and educated extension workers deprive women from accessing new and innovative techniques for improving argiculture production.(Anonymous, 2018).

There are also processing centers like Rooh Afza processing center making jam, pickle and catchup. Each of these centers has more than 30 female workers which gets approximately AFN 300-350 (USD 4-5) per day ‘depending on the season for sale of the products.(NWBC,