U.S. Officials Visit Kabul Women’s FSC

The last three decades of instability in Afghanistan left tens of thousands of widows and orphans in desperate conditions. Since women are very active in agriculture and livestock, these widows have turned to these industries to support their families. To further complicate matters, however, social convention has long prevented women from purchasing their own farm inputs since most input supply stores are staffed entirely by men and are therefore not accessible to women.

Working through the Afghanistan Farm Service Alliance, CNFA identified the need to supply women with the agricultural inputs and services necessary to support their livelihoods. The Kabul Women’s Farm Service Center (FSC), since its inception in February 2010, will enable Afghan women to manage agricultural production themselves. The recently constructed FSC is operated entirely by women, from sales staff to technical trainers. The store empowers female farmers through knowledge transfer and by increasing their roles in decision making and purchasing of productive assets. The store has stocked agricultural products and services tailored specifically for the female clientele, like handicrafts, food curing and processing, charcoal production, embroidery and sowing, jam and pickle production, and baking.

Learning of the innovative new store, Ms. Ching Eikenberry (shown, far right), wife of U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, recently visited the newly established Kabul Women’s Farm Service Center. With her were representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which provided funding for the project. The purpose of the visit was to assess the role of the new FSC in promoting gender development in Afghanistan, and to determine possible linkages with other gender-focused efforts underway in country.

Funded through a matching grant program, this new women’s store will benefit over 16,000 Afghan women, and it will serve as the prototype for several women’s FSCs located throughout Afghanistan. Sales from this newly established store already exceed $473,045, and it has provided 13 new jobs, as well as contract income for many female head of households who sell their production and inventories through the store. To date, the store has already improved the lives of 1,626 households.

The Kabul Women’s Farm Service Center is one of seven FSCs established throughout Afghanistan. Farmers can purchase inputs, receive instruction, and sell crops at their local FSC. Through these service centers, CNFA provides the necessary inputs to previously inaccessible regions so farmers can acquire the products capable of launching them out of poverty. At FSCs, farmers can gain access to pesticides, fertilizers, high quality seeds, and important technical training. Advanced, more productive seeds are also marketed to farmers at these locations in an effort to raise yields and improve efficiency. Aware that a lack of credit is also a sinister reality for many farmers, CNFA arms their FSCs with credit available to responsible farmers. The FSC also serves as a potential buyer for farmers’ outputs. Benefitting more than 45,329Afghan households, the seven CNFA FSCs have created 250jobs, trained more than 16,247 people and have sales that total $25 million.