Kabul, Afghanistan, 26 November 2024 – An impactful project generously funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's ''Saudi Fund for Development'' (SFD) in partnership with the Afghanistan Humanitarian Trust Fund (AHTF) managed by the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) through their implementing partner, the Norwegian Afghanistan Committee (NAC), has significantly boosted agricultural livelihoods, climate resilience, and community development in Yaftal-e-Payan District in Badakhshan Province, Afghanistan.

The success of this SFD-funded project highlights the vital role of collaborative partnerships in building resilient communities and advancing socio-economic progress in vulnerable regions.

In a significant drive to improve the livelihoods of people living in vulnerable communities, the project has restored a damaged water canal which was a major problem in the district and massively improved the agricultural productivity of residents of six villages that rely on a shared canal to irrigate 1,700 hectares of land.

Every year, especially during the rainy season, communities encounter erratic conditions due to climate change, resulting in flooded fields and the loss of arable land due to the deplorable condition of the previous canal. Therefore, the community requested support from NAC to construct a 2,000-meter irrigation canal to protect it from annual flood damage and improve its agricultural productivity by increasing the availability of irrigation water. 

The project was recently completed with the support of workers from the villages temporarily employed by the project team. As a result of this initiative, the villagers no longer have to utilize difficult manual methods to rebuild the canal yearly. They, now, have a more reliable source of irrigation water for their crops, building their resilience to climate change and improving their food security and livelihoods. 

Haji Ashor Mohammad is 69 years old and the head of a household with ten members in Yaftal-e-Payan. He cultivates okra, tomatoes, potatoes, corn, and onions on his land, but he can only irrigate up to three times each year due to the scarcity of irrigation water. "After the construction of this irrigation canal project, we were able to irrigate our lands more frequently – more than four times in a month. This was something we were not able to do in the past when we could only irrigate our lands three times during the entire work season," he said. 

Haji Ashor Mohammad further explained that "Now I can irrigate my farm frequently, and my yields have gone up substantially, and I'm able to grow a much wider variety of crops that thrive with the reliable water supply. I no longer worry about my crops drying up halfway through the season." 

Mohammad Fazil is a 53-year-old resident of Naland Village, one of the villages that rely on the water from the irrigation canal. He supports his family of six through farming but stated that water scarcity was a major problem for them in the past when they could only irrigate their crops once a week, and they would often wither and die. "With the new canal, we now have reliable water access whenever needed. My vegetable yields have increased, and I'm earning much more to support my family. I was hardly able to grow anything before. Now my land is productive year-round, and I'm so grateful for this project," he said. 

Farmers like Fazil and Haji Ashor have seen dramatic improvements in their livelihoods as reliable irrigation water has allowed them to diversify their crops and increase production. The canal has also fostered greater community harmony by reducing disputes over scarce water resources between downstream communities and increasing food security amongst their residents.
Haji Ashor stated, "The improved irrigation has reduced tensions between communities that previously competed for scarce water resources. Before the canal, there were constant disputes over water use. Those conflicts have largely disappeared now that we all have sufficient supply."

This project is one of 25 in the Improving Food Security and Sustaining Livelihoods through Infrastructure Support in Rural Afghanistan project NAC is implementing in partnership with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), the IsDB-managed Afghanistan Humanitarian Trust Fund (AHTF), and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).