Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Afghanistan

Northern Afghanistan drought impact assessment

Attachments


- A drought impact assessment was conducted in northern Afghanistan, by FEWS NET, to identify high risk zones where lives and livelihoods were at risk due to below–average rainfall (50– 90 percent below normal).

- The impact of the current drought is most severe in areas which depend on rain– fed agriculture, rather than irrigation. Ninety percent of rain– fed wheat acreage has no yield while irrigated wheat yield is likely to decrease by 20– 30 percent in areas of the northwest where farmers are faced with water shortages.

- Provision of food aid is essential to save lives and livelihoods in Almar, the Astana areas of Shirin Tagab district, the Pashtun Kut areas of Faryab Province, Dari Suf Payin, and the rain fed areas of the Hazrat Sultan District of Samangan Province.

- Scarcity of adequate pasture and animal feed has reached critical levels in the northwestern provinces and urgent attention is needed in order to prevent further deterioration in agro– pastoralist livelihoods.



Methodology

The main objective of the northern drought impact assessment was to identify high risk zones where lives and livelihoods were at risk due to the impact of drought. Affected populations were defined as households using irreversible coping strategies (e.g., distress sales of key assets) or households with no remaining resources to cope with any further shocks.

Two criteria were used to select districts for the northern Afghanistan assessment. First, areas where rain fed agro-pastoralism was the common livelihood approach were chosen because these areas are comparatively more vulnerable to drought than regions where other types of livelihoods, like carpet weaving, and irrigated agriculture, are more common. Second, the assessment team used remote sensing data (the water requirement satisfaction index) to identify the districts where crops had been most severely affected by below- normal precipitation during the production season (Figure 2).

In the selected areas (Faryab, Sari Pul, Jawzjan, Balkh, Samangan, Baghlan, Kundoz, and Takhar Provinces), data was collected through direct observation and key informant interviews with farmers and livestock owners, NGOs and UN agencies, food traders, and government officials, particularly those from provincial departments of agriculture.