Over 70pc of greenhouses sold cheaply in Faryab

MAIMANA (Pajhwok): Officials and farmers in northern Faryab province say more than 70 percent of greenhouses that were distributed by the former government have been sold as scrap at dirt-cheap prices.

The greenhouses were distributed over the last 10 years to promote agriculture, improve food security, alleviate poverty and strengthen the economy of farmers.

In an exclusive interview with Pajhwok Afghan News, Agriculture Director Maulvi Ezatullah Noorani said 260 greenhouses were built in different districts in the solar year 1388. Findings of this department show about 80 percent of the greenhouses have been sold as scrap.

Noorani deplored greenhouses worth 100,000 afs to one million afs had been sold at throwaway prices.

He added the greenhouses had been distributed and sold during the previous government. If the ministry orders the recovery of greenhouses from the people who had sold them, the department will take action.

Ghulam Farooq, an agriculture department official, confirmed that 70-80 percent of greenhouses had been sold or were not being used properly. Most of the cool houses were distributed by agriculture department.

Haji Rozi, a member of the development council in Ghormach district, recalled four years ago, 12 greenhouses worth 12 million afghanis had been built in the town. Currently, he said, only four of them were active and the eight others had been sold for 250,000 to 600,000 afghanis.

“Greenhouses were not distributed to deserving people. Instead, the conservatories were handed to people involved in corruption,” he claimed.

Abdullah Samim, a member of DACAAR, told Pajhwok the committee had distributed 110 greenhouses in Qaisar, Almar, Pashtunkot, Khwaja Sabzposh, Shirin Tagab, Dawlatabad, Balcharagh and Grezwan districts.

Sayed Abdul Basit, head of the agriculture department at ACTED, said they had built five hothouses for farmers in Faryab and all of them were active.

But Amir Mohammad Bek, a farmer in Khwaja Sabzposh district who owns one such conservatory, is satisfied with the facility and the income from it.

This Pajhwok reporter visited several stores of repair materials in Maimana, where one kilogram of iron is purchased for 50 afghanis and sold for 90 afghanis.

Two iron dealers said they were hard hit and unhappy because some people had destroyed the high-cost greenhouses that had built. They were for small amounts of money, the traders regretted.

sa/mud