With 60-80% of Afghans depending on agriculture for survival, ACRU's agricultural program rebuilds irrigation systems, trains farmers, and restores food production capacity to communities devastated by drought, conflict, and economic collapse.
Afghanistan has been an agricultural civilization for thousands of years. The fertile valleys of the Hindu Kush, the orchards of Kandahar and Nangarhar, the wheat plains of Herat and Logar — these landscapes have fed Afghan communities and supported great trading civilizations across the Silk Road. Today, this agricultural heritage is in crisis. Recurring drought, destroyed irrigation infrastructure, lack of agricultural inputs, displacement of farming communities, and economic collapse have combined to create a food production emergency that forces millions of Afghans to depend on humanitarian food aid rather than their own productive capacity.
ACRU's Agriculture and Food Security Program works to reverse this decline — one irrigation canal, one trained farmer, one poultry program, and one rehabilitated karize at a time. Our goal is not just to feed Afghans today, but to rebuild the agricultural foundations that will feed Afghans for generations.
In most of Afghanistan, crops cannot grow on rainfall alone. Irrigation is the lifeblood of Afghan agriculture — without it, fields are barren. Afghanistan's irrigation infrastructure, built over millennia and expanded during the 20th century, includes karize (underground water channels), surface canals, check dams, gravity schemes, and pump-fed systems. Decades of conflict have left much of this infrastructure damaged, silted, or abandoned.
ACRU has extensive experience in irrigation canal construction, cleaning, and rehabilitation. In Logar Province, ACRU cleaned over 52 kilometers of irrigation canals under WFP-funded programs — directly enabling crop production for hundreds of farming households. In Mohammad Agha District, ACRU constructed a 300-meter protection wall and associated cut-off structures that protect farmland from annual flooding, preserving the irrigation investment. Total WFP-funded infrastructure investment in Logar: over $172,000 plus 939.6 metric tons of food distributed as labor payment.
Afghan farmers are skilled and adaptive, but they have been largely isolated from improvements in agricultural knowledge and technique for decades of conflict. ACRU delivers farmer training programs in: improved seed varieties and planting techniques; soil health and fertilization; integrated pest management (reducing reliance on chemical pesticides); post-harvest storage and loss reduction; crop diversification to reduce dependence on wheat; and water management techniques for drought periods.
Training is delivered through farmer field schools (FFS) — small group learning sessions conducted in farmers' own fields — as well as through community demonstration plots where new techniques can be observed and compared with traditional methods. Our Agriculture program staff includes trained agronomists and extension workers who speak the local languages and understand local farming contexts.
When farming communities are displaced or hit by drought, they often lose their seed stocks and farming tools — the foundation of agricultural production. A family without seeds cannot plant, no matter how fertile their land. ACRU distributes improved seed varieties (wheat, maize, vegetables) and basic agricultural tools (hoes, shovels, ploughs) to farming households recovering from crisis, enabling them to restart production and reduce food aid dependency.
Poultry — particularly chicken — provides two forms of nutrition in one package: eggs for regular protein intake and meat for occasional consumption. For rural families in Afghanistan, a small flock of chickens is a critical nutrition and income supplement. ACRU establishes community poultry programs by distributing improved breed chicks, providing feed management training, and supporting small-scale poultry enclosure construction. Women manage most household poultry in Afghan communities, making poultry programs particularly effective for women's income generation.
Afghanistan's orchard heritage — pomegranates from Kandahar, grapes from Herat, almonds from the north — represents enormous potential economic value. But orchards take years to establish, and the conflict period has seen widespread abandonment and destruction of fruit trees. ACRU establishes community nurseries to grow fruit tree seedlings and vegetable transplants, dramatically reducing the time and cost for farmers to re-establish orchards and market gardens.
Climate change is making Afghan agriculture progressively harder. Rainfall is declining. Temperatures are rising. The growing season is becoming less predictable. ACRU's agricultural programs integrate climate adaptation approaches: drought-resistant seed varieties, water conservation techniques, soil mulching, terracing on sloped land, and watershed management. These approaches help Afghan farmers maintain productivity even as climate conditions deteriorate.
A country that cannot feed itself is not fully sovereign. Afghanistan's dependence on food aid is a result of the destruction of its agricultural system — not a reflection of Afghan agricultural capacity or ambition. ACRU's agricultural programs are ultimately about restoring Afghan food sovereignty: the ability of Afghan communities to produce the food they need, in their own land, with their own knowledge and labor. This is the most dignified and sustainable form of food security.
Food, NFI and cash to crisis-affected communities.
Skills training and vocational education.
Clean water and sanitation programs.
Irrigation rehabilitation and farming support.