Dying a bit every day: Afghanistan’s food and livelihood crisis
By Massoud Kohistani and Yunus Sajid

(Kabul, 10 July, 2008): While walking around the markets of Kabul, one is certain to see large crowds of small retailers, endlessly announcing their offering food items to unexpected customers—"but not a lot of people can afford to buy food" says Farhad, who is a vegetable seller. "I come to the market with great hopes to earn some money, but I go home concerned about what to feed my children ".
 
Yesterday, the Government of Afghanistan and the United Nations launched a 400 million dollars appeal to feed 4.5 million Afghans in desperate need of food aid as a result of the worldwide rise in food prices, poor harvests and drought.

Afghanistan is facing an acute food and livelihood crisis. In a country that ranks among the poorest in Asia and least developed in the world, it was estimated that roughly half of the population was already having trouble meeting daily food requirements before the food prices began to rise. 

“With prices of food items now doubled or tripled in many areas, communities’ safety nets are failing and people are being forced to think about ways how to cope right now instead of the future”, says CARE Afghanistan’s country director, Lex Kassenberg. Farmers are selling off the agricultural assets they need to work the land in order to buy food. Some are accumulating debt to buy something to eat, without any real possibility of ever paying it back.

And people are not positive about the future. Prices are not expected to go down to the level of last year, while salaries are not increasing. Abdul Shakor, a shoemaker in downtown Kabul is deeply concerned about the impact of the rising prices on his purchasing power. "I receive the same income today as I did five years ago", he says.

While humanitarian assistance to this population is absolutely necessary, there is still a need to focus on long term solutions to Afghanistan’s food crisis. This means that the underlying causes of the problem, such as poverty, lack of infrastructure and markets, limited arable land, environmental degradation and conflict, must be addressed. 

Afghanistan’s wheat harvest is expected to be 36 percent lower than in 2007. Amaanullah, a 75 year old farmer has seen the changes in the country's agricultural production and stresses the need for long term solutions. "The only way to recover from drought is to invest in sustainable irrigation systems”, he says. Now he is scared of having to leave his farm if the situation does not improve. “I will have to leave my fields if the cost of food continues to rise”, he says. “And I will have to accept any kind of labor in order to ensure that my family survives, even illegal!”

Crime has become part of everyday life in Afghanistan. Children are being abducted and people murdered for money. “Many people who commit economically motivated crimes are doing so due to the rising prices and stagnant salaries”, says our Kabul shoemaker.

The increased prices have aggravated an already desperate situation in Afghanistan and progress made over the last years is in danger of vanishing. CARE has assisted poor communities in Afghanistan for decades, trying to provide people with income opportunities. “The rise in prices is now pushing people who had successfully made a living for themselves back into the rows of those in need for direct food assistance”, says the CARE country director. CARE has been assisting poor widows in Kabul for years, providing food assistance, but increasingly focusing on more sustainable solutions. “Due to the price rise, widows that through the project had become self sufficient are now likely to fall back into eligibility for direct assistance”, Kassenberg concludes.

Fatima, an Afghan woman who has been forced to beg in the market to survive, makes a horrible comment on her situation. She says she is torn between two horrible options: "To kill herself and die once, or to stay alive and die a bit every day".