Animal food distribution begins in Herat

HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): The process of distributing animal food to 16,725 livestock owners in seven districts of western Herat province was started on Sunday, local officials said.

Deputy agriculture department head, BashirAhmadAhmadi at the inaugural ceremony said the program was initiated to prevent livestock owners from getting more affected by this year’s drought.

He said the assistance would initially be distributed to livestock owners of Zindajan, Adraskan, KashkRubatSangi, Karkh, Guzra, Ghoryan and KashkKohna districts of the western province.

Ahmadi said livestock owners of other districts would be covered in the second stage of the aid distribution.

According to the deputy head, the total value of the aid is $540,000 and that the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and some other organizations were funding the program. He said that each livestock owner would be distributed 200kg of animal food.

Meanwhile, some farmers in Herat consider this amount of animal feed as insufficient in proportion to this year’s drought.

AbdulRauf, a rancher in Zindajan district, said he lost 50 sheep to this year’s drought.

He scorned the insufficient aid from the MAIL and called on the relevant authorities to provide more in order to solve their problems.

Another livestock owner, MulaHaidar also demanded increase in the assistance

This year has been one of the driest in western Herat because as rainfall has been less than previous years.

Hr/ma