KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development on Tuesday said 84 districts of the country would possibly face drought coming solar year.
Meshrano Jirga or upper house of the parliament today summoned agriculture and rural rehabilitation and development ministers to provide information about the consequences of a possible drought in the country coming year.
Anwarul Haq Ahadi, agriculture minister, talking to the house today, said that their anticipation shows 84 districts in the country would face drought in the new year.
However, he did not provide information about the location of the districts.
The ministry expected 50 to 100 milliliters rains in the country coming solar year, Ahadi said, adding that the ministry would be able to manage shortage of rainfall if it was 50 milliliters but not above that.
Ahadi said that Afghanistan had 180,000 hectares of orchards two years ago compared to 640,000 hectares in outgoing 1399 solar year.
Increasing orchards cannot solve problems and there is need for expansion of fruits processing facilities so the products were not lost, he added.
“Our focus is more on infrastructures for processing and marketing of agricultural products this year to protect them from damage,” he said.
The ministry has the plan to distribute over 16,000 tons of improved wheat seeds to farmers coming year, Ahadi said.
In response to a question, he said, “If current efforts are kept, Afghanistan will become self-reliant in chicken farming, wheat, dairy and other products; but other areas need developments considering the increasing population in the country.”
Acting rural development and rehabilitation minister, Mujib Rahman Karimi said that his ministry allocated around $200 million for dealing with drought coming year.
He said aside from the budget for managing drought, the ministry also had other plans to responding to problems.
The ministry has more than 10,300 projects for providing potable water next year and the projects would cost more than 11 billion afghanis, he added.
Karimi said that the ministry constructed 751 schools in 17 provinces of the country during the outgoing solar year while 1,553 others were under construction.
Work on 1,800 more school buildings would be also launched in the coming year, he concluded.
Mds/ma
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