Qarasai village is located about 40 km away

from the central of Baghlan province (Pul e

khumry) to west side on the slopes of the

high mountains and hill, its population is

about 2000. The village has about 2500 ha of

total Rain fed land. The mountains and hills

of this village are about 25000-hectare which

is covered with pistachio trees. Most of Soil

in the region is eroded due to heavy flood

and changed to deep gullies. previously The

community were cutting all bushes and trees

for fuel purpose , ICARDA and NRM struggled

to create awareness about the importance of

pastures and tree in the community ,due to

mobilization and awareness the resident of

community have decided to protect their

area where pistachio are cultivated. The

community also come to gather and agreed

by coordination of ICARDA to plant mulberry

trees in the selected watershed site and take

its responsibility for irrigation and protec-

tion .

Watershed project established 26 units of

check dams in the gully to decrease the

speed of flood and prevent soil erosion and

more than 150 mulberry trees were planted

at spacing of (6X6 M, 5X5 M) in traditional

method. Beside this Atriplex were cultivated

in plastic bag for transplanting to the field in

Semicircle. Cultivation of mulberry saplings

and pistachio seeds with improved dry land

techniques in this Area of the village will

provide a green area for people to spend

their free time in future. For capacity build-

ing purpose More than 400 Students, farm-

ers, scientists and common people from

Baghlan practically observed the watershed

structures and water harvesting technologies

demonstration, educational, research, and

extension purposes and they copy the idea

to implement it in their respective areas in

future and the resident of the community

find it very effective project for their village

M A R C H - A P R I L , 2 0 1 6

SPECIAL POINTS OF IN-

TEREST:

1..Watershed Updates

2..Technical Meeting workgroup

meeting

3..Community Based Seed Pro-

duction

4..Ag-Fair Event

5..Distribution of Equipment's at

Logar province

Establishment of watershed structures and water harvesting technologies for

demonstration, educational, research, and extension purposes

J U L Y - D E C 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E N O . 0 4

ICARDA-AFGHANISTAN

Newsletter

T E C H N I C A L A D V I S E T O T H E

F A R M E R O N P E S T I D E N T I F I C A -

T I O N A N D I T S C O N T R O L P A T H -

W A Y D U R I N G F I E L D V I S I T , I C A R -

D A S T A F F , H E A R T

Contact US: Address : Kabul City , Kabul ,Afghanistan Phone : +93-799-216-325E-mail : Y.saharawat@cgiar.orgWeb : www.cgiar.com

2 I C A R D A - A F G N E W S L E T E R

Technical working group meeting

J U L Y - D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E N O . 0 4

In November 2016 the third Technical Working Group Meeting was conducted

on seed certification project in New Delhi, India. Apart from members of TWG,

MAIL Advisor in Research and MAIL Advisor in Policy also participated in the

meeting. ICARDA Seed Experts and international consultants were also among

the participants. The meeting was held for three days during which the Direc-

tor of SPCD presented current status of this directorate. He highlighted the

need for development of legal documents including procedures, guidelines,

manuals etc. during the three days meeting the participants visited the Indian

National Seed Corporation (NSC) and the purpose of this visit was to see the

development of agriculture sector of India and learn some thing new about

seed certification process ,laboratory analysis and seed industry of India .

Estabshiment of community based seed production program through joint

venture with the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and

ICARDA ,making concerted efforts to encourage and promote greater role and

contribution of Afghan women farmers along with men through community-

based seed production activities for the first time in the country. Through the

joint venture of MAIL and ICARDA, strengthening of Afghan women’s partici-

pation in wheat farming will be ensured which will turn result in access to the

on timely availability of quality seed of wheat and vegetable varieties . Estab-

lishment of village based seed enterprises produces verities that Through

technical support of MAIL and ICARDA; and financed by IFAD that will yield

more and resistant to diseases. Women-led VBSEs is very important in Af-

ghanistan and endorsed by the National Seed Board (NSB) including Private

Sector Directorate of MAIL and are officially registered with Afghanistan In-

vestment Support Agency (AISA). To have better result in future and enhance

entrepreneurial capacity of the VBSE male and female members five days

training was conducted on enterprise establishment by highly qualified seed

specialists of ICARDA. In addition, capacity of the VBSE members has been

improved in the whole value chain of seed processing such as cleaning of seed

treating the seed with different chemicals, packing the seed in envelops and

labeling, storing the seed, testing the seed quality and selling their seed in

markets.

The Participants Visit by NSC

Init iate Joint Venture by ICARDA & MAIL

Group Photo by Participant During Meeting

A View of VBSE Opening Ceremony program

A View of Discussion Session During Training

3 J U L Y - D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E N O . 0 4 I C A R D A - A F G N E W S L E T E R

MAIL Minis ter Si te Vis i t to Logar Province

& Dis tr ibut ion of Machinery

Mr. Assadullah Zamir, Minister of MAIL Islamic Republic of Afghanistan made a

site visit to logar province on 20th October 2016. His Excellency welcomed by

Logar governor, parliament members, provincial council and gathering of logar

farmers, Agriculture cooperative, livestock keepers and other agriculture com-

munity and stakeholders. His Excellency addressed the participants and ex-

plained MAIL new plans to the participants, after short discussion his excellency

inaugurated distribution of Certified seed a long with chemical fertilizer to Logar

Center eligible farmers, afterward proceeded to inaugurate the distribution of

hand tool for yogurt process to Kochies/ nomads . At the end his Excellency

handed over a key package of seed production and processing equipment in-

cluding a tractor, thresher, seed drill and seed processing plant to Mir Abdal

VBSE in Pul –e- Alam, center of Logar province.

The Objective of Ag-fair event is to increase linkages between Afghan agricultur-

al producers, retailers, and traders, both domestic and international. The Ag-Fair

is a unique festival where men, women and children can come together to see

agricultural products, enjoy live music and entertainment, have a meal and do

some shopping. It is hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture Irrigation Livestock

and held twice a year in March and October in Afghanistan. ICARDA has also

resaved two booths to share the agriculture research and experience with audi-

ence ,One separate booth has been reserved for female farmer of kitchen gar-

dening program by gender department of CLAP project and three female farm-

ers of kitchen gardening and VBSEs from Logar and Parwan have participated

actively at gender-oriented booth there to present and sale the kitchen garden-

ing products and services . At the mean time Abdullah Abdullah, Chief Executive

officer of the National Unity Government has visited ICARDA’s booth and The

ICARDA’s staff briefed the Dr. Abdullah Abdullah on the ICARDA’s agricultural

activities and developments under different project in different provinces of the

country , He was thankful while visiting the booth. Chickpea halwa was offered

to him to eat Then he wished success to all project staff and left the booth.

Afghanistan's National 17th Ag-fair even at Badam Bagh ,Kabul

Fairground

Hi Excellency Dr. Abdullah visit ICARDA’s

booth

A View of Female Farmers During Ag-Fair

event

Picture caption

Advantage of the Improved Varieties Over Local

Data collection from all 120 implemented wheat demonstration plots together with local variety or local methods (in case

of row cultivation introduced in demo-plots and broadcast cultivation) have been completed. The comparison was car-

ried out using t-test. The mean yields of improved and local checks were estimated- The result indicted, the improved

varieties with package of practice was yielded higher than local varieties and practice in all 8 targeted districts as

showed in the Fig-1. The response of the improved wheat varieties were individually better in all location than local one

as more than 50% yield improved in Charikar district (Parwan province) but it is different from place to place because of

variation in soil, environments and field management ,Furthermore, the result showed that yield of the improved varieties

increased 34.84 % collectively over local variety for wheat in all three provinces or in other word, the use of improved

varieties of wheat increased the yields significantly over local variety. Also, the graph showed the potential of improved

varieties separately over local as percentage yield increased (Gul-96 10.38%, Kohdesth 39.38 %, Moqawim-09 22.99 %

and Zagras 66.62 %). (Fig. 2)

I C A R D A - A F G N E W S L E T E R

Key Act iv it ie s

and

achievements :

About ICARDA:

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is the global agricultural research organization

working with countries in the world’s dry and marginal areas to deliver sustainable systems solutions that increase productivity,

improve rural nutrition, and strengthen national food security. ICARDA’s integrated approach includes new crop varieties; agrono-

my; on-farm water productivity; natural resources management; rangeland and small ruminant production; and socioeconomic and

policy research to better target poverty issues and accelerate technology adoption. A member of CGIAR Consortium, ICARDA

works closely with national agricultural research programs and other partners in more than 40 countries across North and Sub-

Saharan Africa, and Central, South, and West Asia.

Contact US:

Address : Kabul City ,

Kabul ,Afghanistan

Phone : +93-799-216-325

E-mail : Y.saharawat@cgiar.org

Web : www.cgiar.com

J U L Y - D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 6 / I S S U E N O . 0 4 4