By Abbas Nazil
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Kingdom government have launched a new £10 million initiative aimed at enhancing rural resilience, improving food security, and supporting climate adaptation efforts in Afghanistan.
The project, named Resilient Agriculture Livelihoods (ReAL), is set to benefit more than 151,000 individuals—equivalent to 21,572 households—across 15 provinces within all eight regions of Afghanistan by May 2026.
This initiative, part of the UK’s “Promoting Resilient and Equitable Recovery of Agriculture and Livelihoods in Afghan Communities” (PREVALE) programme, focuses on small-scale farmers, livestock keepers, and landless labourers, with a special emphasis on widows and female-headed households.
Over the next 10 months, the project will support vulnerable farming communities in increasing wheat and dairy production, restoring irrigation systems, distributing high-quality seeds, and improving livestock health through vaccination drives and local animal health services.
Women will play a pivotal role in the implementation of the project. Targeted interventions for women include poultry packages, livestock training, and greater access to dairy markets. These efforts aim to improve household nutrition, particularly for women and children, while also generating income opportunities for female-headed households.
FAO’s Representative in Afghanistan, Richard Trenchard, expressed gratitude for the UK’s timely and strategic support. He emphasized that although Afghan farmers are known for their resilience, repeated climate and economic shocks are steadily weakening their ability to cope.
He described the project as an essential investment to help farmers rebuild their resilience, which aligns with FAO’s vision of the “Four Betters”—better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life.
Agriculture remains central to Afghanistan’s culture, economy, and survival. Between 2022 and 2024, FAO reached more than 30.3 million Afghans with emergency and resilience-oriented agricultural assistance, contributing significantly to a reduction in the country’s acute food insecurity.
The ReAL project builds upon this foundation by promoting income-generating activities, facilitating market access, and supporting sustainable land use and climate risk management. It also aims to decrease the need for humanitarian aid over time by investing in long-term food sovereignty and resilience.
The initiative will be implemented alongside another PREVALE-funded project led by the Afghanistan Resilience Consortium (ARC), under Afghanaid, which also targets climate-vulnerable communities with similar resilience and disaster risk reduction strategies.
Both the FAO and ARC projects will collaborate to share evidence-based practices and scale up climate-resilient and sustainable agricultural development methods.
FAO emphasized that agricultural support remains one of the most cost-effective solutions to address widespread food insecurity and malnutrition in Afghanistan.
As the country continues to face overlapping climate and economic challenges, long-term support for rural livelihoods is considered vital to safeguarding past progress and paving the way toward sustainable recovery.
