Five practical solutions and recommendations to help improve Afghanistan’s troubled Agriculture sector

Introduction

This whitepaper offers five key solutions and recommendations to help improve Afghanistan’s trouble agriculture sector.

Links to further detailed analysis are provided. The author is available for expert exchange with government advisors, company owners, and subject matter experts.

A) Situation Analysis

This section helps understand the current situation of Afghanistan’s agriculture

Think right about Agriculture

Agriculture is complex

• Agriculture has been practiced for thousands of years. However, that does not mean that it is easy. In fact, agriculture his high complex as it requires deep understanding of various key aspects such climate, soil, seeds, cultivation, temperature, sunlight, irrigation, fertilization, pest control, effective harvesting, food processing, storage, distribution, food safety, and quality control across all aspects.
• Different countries, regions and even districts often pose very different conditions that may create remarkable different environments, conditions, needs, limitations and challenges. Each farmland is somewhat unique and requires a customized solution for optimizing harvests and use of the land.
• Agriculture is dependent on the support and inputs of several other key industries. Understanding of their interests, needs, and constraints helps achieve better outcomes. Collaboration across all stakeholders leads to better results.
• Agriculture sustains the life of the population. It is part of national security and of high importance. The exchange of inputs and outputs across countries and the related trade makes agriculture often very political.

Two main drivers determine a harvest

The crop harvest is determined by two main drivers:

1) The selectin of the right seed genetics respective to the soil and climate conditions

2) The planning and execution of the farming operations.

Understand the end-to-end process and the ecosystem

It is necessary examine each step of the farming process from “farm to fork” and collaborate well with all key stakeholders of the agricultural ecosystem, which includes: Landowners, farmers, seed producers, machinery & equipment vendors, civil engineering & construction companies, energy creators & providers, transportation providers, food processors, distributors & warehousing, wholesalers, retailers, shops/ stands, local/ international customers, investors, regulatory & government bodies.

Understand Afghanistan’s current struggling agriculture situation

Previous articles assessed the situation of Afghanistan’s troubled agriculture.

Review those articles:

READ Shocking reasons why Afghanistan’s rich agriculture can still not feed its population and runs a massive national budget deficit | LinkedIn

READ: How Afghan's chaotic agriculture destroys incomes, environment and Afghanistan – Situation Analysis | LinkedIn

Note:

This document focuses much on agriculture related to crops, fruits and vegetables. Life stock is part of agriculture, but not explained in this document. Refer to related articles by the same author: Practical Guidance and Knowledge Library 2.0 to help start/ build companies and build Afghanistan across all key industry sectors | LinkedIn

Specifically, you may refer to:

READ: How to use Afghanistan’s unused mountains to feed millions of Afghans | LinkedIn

B) Practical Solutions

This section offers and discusses five practical solutions to notably improve the agriculture in Afghanistan:

1)    Apply modern farming methods and best practices

Many Afghan farmers are still using outdated, inefficient farming methods of hundreds of years ago. Most farmers hardly can feed their families. Many farmers run financial loss every year and get increasingly into debt.

It is important to make improvements along the entire value chain of farming from “farm to fork”:

• Analyze land & soil condition.
• Determine most suitable use of land
• Evaluate market demand.
• Chose the right crop to cultivate based on suitability of land, environmental conditions and market/ economic factors.
• Identify and choose the most suitable seeds
• Use machinery & equipment: Share among farmers to reduce costs. Consider leasing & collaboration arrangements with vendors.
• Assure sufficient irrigation: Collaborate with construction companies.
• Assure sufficient and economic energy: Collaborate with energy service providers.
• Implement healthy and sustainable agriculture practices and quality control
• Manage proper, healthy, cost-efficient fertilization and pest control
• Assure safe, clean, timely, cost-efficient pick up of harvest and transport to processing plants.
• Conduct safe, clean, cost-efficient processing and packaging (as applicable)
• Direct and monitor proper storage and distribution
• Distribute food safely, timely and cost-efficiently to whole sellers, retail stores, shops, markets & food stalls
• Engage with consumers to collect feedback for improving overall process and satisfaction.

2)    Collaborate among key stakeholders

Agriculture requires many inputs for effective farming. Paying for all the costs immediately would be impossible for most farmers. This section offers innovative ways to achieve modern, effective farming.

Seed producers

• Postpone (part of) seed payments until harvest time. Offer part of harvest in return.
• Explore with seed producers different performance-based, result-calculated pay, gain-share models to obtain high quality seeds.
• Work with seed producers to test and improve on existing seeds for optimizing harvest results.

Collaborate with machinery & equipment vendors

• Explore and negotiate leasing and maintenance contracts.
• Postpone purchase payments of machinery & equipment. Pay out of harvest revenues. Pay extra for postponement.
• Negotiate gain-share models with vendors.
• Create farmer-equipment vendor partnerships

Equipment & machinery vendors offer specific services along the farming process

• Vendors offer plowing and harvesting as a service.
• Vendors do not charge for a machine, but rather for a result.
• Farmland owners or leasers pay for results per acre
• Equipment vendors offer menu of services along the entire farming life cycle end-to-end. Price is charged per service per acre…

o   plowed

o   seeded

o   fertilized

o   pesticides applied

o   watered

o   harvested

o   bundled

o   transported (harvest to processor)

Construction companies offer civil, mechanical, electrical and other infrastructure services

Create necessary infrastructure that enables the farming...

• dam building (for flood control and water storage)
• canal construction
• irrigation systems

Service providers create and distribute needed energy for all farming efforts

• Break installment and operating costs of 10-20 years
• Alternatively, charge by Kilowatt of energy
• Provide different offerings for solar, wind, water, biomass and other energy provision

Transportation providers

• Form and negotiate large cost-efficient deals with transportation companies for many farmers or large farm regions.
• Rent/ lease transportation trucks when needed.

Food processors

• Explore investments or other participation of food processors in farming
• Enter gain-risk-share models

Distributors & warehousing

• Create normal temporary and longer-term cold storage facilities
• Establish gain-share and joint investment models
• Warehousing operators finance part of expenses to upgrade farming to better/ best practices
• Cold storage facilities store fruits & vegetables for several months and then sell at high off-season prices. Farmers provide the produce. Storage operators safely store fruits & vegetables. Both share profits later.

Local/ international wholesalers, retailers, shops & stands

• Closely engage with those parties that sell the agricultural products to end consumers.
• Agree on convenient direct deliveries, packaging.
• Grow on demand. Agree on profit-sharing contracts.

Local/ international end customers

• Grow healthy food. Assure and guarantee quality.
• Engage with end customers to better identify needs.
• Explore premium customer segments. Grow for customer demand and their specific needs.

Investors finance, underwrite, manage risks, negotiate and manage large agreements & deals

• All the different approaches could be financed or at least underwritten/ secured by investors.
• Identify different investment opportunities where projects can lead to notable revenue increases & profit gains.
• Give investors opportunities to fully many part or entire value chain of farming.

3)    Centralize farming and manage professionally

Many farmers in Afghanistan are illiterate. NGOs have tried for over two (!) decades to educate farmers and have achieved very limited success. Most farmers are still applying methods that are 200 to 300 (!) years old.

A new and better approach is necessary…

Centralize farming and manage professionally:

• Create large farms of 100 to 1000 acres of land.
• Plan and manage all efforts for large farmlands systematically.
• Introduce professional agriculture methods and best practices (as described in earlier section)
• Plan different crops according to market needs.
• Create risk portfolio for different crop scenarios.  
• Optimize harvest returns based on financial models.

Leverage former farmers as workers on those mega farms

• Relieve farmers from their responsibility to think and plan.
• Employ them as workers.
• Direct their manpower through skilled supervisors

Gain economies of scale

• Procure much larger quantities of necessary farming inputs (described earlier) and much better rates.

Build full knowledge & expertise

• Employ necessary experts from necessary disciplines.
• Gain and apply best practices.
• Do necessary research and analysis.
• Negotiate based on facts and knowledge.
• Eliminate unfair deals that farmers (may) have suffered.

Manage large areas professionally

• Reduce costs and gain options to obtain the necessary machinery, equipment & tools.

Operate better and more cost efficiently

• Minimize costs & time.
• Improve quality.

Achieve better outcomes and returns

• Make agriculture more productive.
• Achieve higher harvest returns.

Get quality & process certifications

• Obtain necessary certifications.
• Understand standards and get approvals to export products to customers worldwide (as applicable)

Industrialize agriculture and build a modern agriculture sector

• Help Afghanistan eliminate the current trade deficit (1 billion dollars of food annually imported = 7 percent of entire GDP)
• Eliminate hunger and food crisis in Afghanistan.
• Bless millions of Afghan people with better, more healthy, affordable food!

4)    Develop National Masterplan, monitor and control

“Without a vision, the people perish”. There needs to be a clear plan and direction for developing and managing the agriculture sector in Afghanistan. It requires a clear roadmap, a national masterplan!

This master plan should include:

Current agricultural needs for 2024 as baseline.

• List of all food categories with their respective quantities by province and nationwide.
• List of all food related products imported and exports
• List all gaps: Exact food products with their respective quantities that were in shortage in Afghanistan.
• Detailed breakdown of trade deficit in agriculture (estimated to be USD 1+ billion)

Estimations of agricultural needs for 2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030

• List of all food categories with their respective quantities by province and nationwide.
• List of all food related products imported and exports

Roadmap for 2025 to 2030

• Detailed plan to cover the food needs of the Afghan population
• Detailed plan to eliminate/ minimize the trade deficit.
• Detailed plan to become agriculturally self-sufficient.

Problem analysis

• Identify all current agricultural practices that lead to economic loses and damages to Afghanistan’s environment & economic future
• Determine remedy actions

Agricultural policies

• Develop and establish policies that help Afghanistan achieve the objectives above

Enforce laws and regulation

• Establish and levy clear penalties for companies & individuals who do not follow policies, rules and guidelines.
• Press criminal charges against severe misconduct.
• Demonstrate swift prosecution. Deter people from wrong behavior.

Create “light house projects”

• Demonstrate best practices and role model better behavior

Form agriculture think tank and empower advisory group for agriculture decisions

• The government needs a truly trusted advisory team that fully understands the intrinsic details of agriculture and can help understand/ plan all issues systematically.
• That think tank should be staffed with local and international independent experts & advisors
• An oversight committee should assure that all advisors work to the very best interest of the Afghan people and not for own efforts.

Facilitate collaboration across key industries

• Identify the necessary inputs into agriculture from other industries.
• Identify the outputs required from agriculture.
• Identify the stakeholders in the ecosystem.
• Analyze needs, interests and constraints among the ecosystem stakeholders.
• Appoint Point of Contacts in each industry to facilitate collaboration among agriculture and other industry sectors.

Other

• To be determined

Notes:

• Above means notable effort.
• Afghan’s government agencies, universities, research organizations, economist, industry experts and other contributors should work together to research, collect data, analyze, plan and develop the documentation.
• Above plan is only a first draft outline for the necessary efforts.
• Recommended parties should develop a detailed plan with clear outcomes, roles & responsibilities, and key performance criteria!

5)    Control work of international organizations and NGOs to better serve Afghanistan

International organizations and NGOs have acted at their own interest for too long in Afghanistan. Tens or hundreds of billions of foreign taxpayer money have never reached the intended Afghans. It is time for Afghanistan to fully re-think how to deal with NGOs!

Recommended immediate action steps:

• Set up an independent third-party review committee to analyze the behavior & performance of international organizations and NGOs in Afghanistan. (initiated and directed by Afghan government).
• Review salary & benefit structure of international organizations (such as UN). Require organizations to pay back money that was overpaid in salaries (international vs local Afghan salaries), unreasonable security (high security convoy charges for simple trips in peaceful situation), excessive benefits, and other unnecessary costs, that all reduced the actual amount of money that was designated to the Afghan recipients.  
• Establish clear guidelines of what qualifies as “NGO projects”. Eliminate “personal agenda” efforts. Focus on the needs of millions of Afghans.
• Require clear evidence of sustainability of all projects.
• Transfer all “humanitarian relief”, “crisis response”, and “capacity building” donor money to solid sustainable projects that will help build the country and benefit millions of Afghans.
• Investigate NGOs. Identify misuse of funding. Evoke licenses. Freeze accounts.
• Establish that charging "undue expenses or overhead” from donated money to Afghan people is stealing and crime!
• Prosecute NGOs, their leadership and key staff, for severe negligence and performance/ outcome failures of their projects and programs, and misuse of money.
• Order organizations to pay back misused money that should have benefited Afghan people.
• Create annual review and ranking of NGOs.
• Classify NGOs: Gold (preferred partner of Afghanistan), White (appreciated), Grey (under investigation), Black (License revoked)

Conclusion:

This document built on previous articles analyzing the problems of Afghanistan’s agriculture sector. This document offered five key recommendations to make improvements and implement solutions.

The next step should be for government advisors and experts from the agricultural sector to discuss the document and develop more detailed plans accordingly.

The author is willing to facilitate and support those conversations.

You can reach out to Alex Steinberg by connecting with him through LinkedIn Alex Steinberg 方澤昂 | LinkedIn, WhatsApp +966 531824178 (Alex is in Afghanistan, but keeps his international number), or email at alexwsteinberg@hotmail.com

Legal Disclaimer

This article reflects the opinion of Alex Steinberg only. It does not claim to represent the viewpoints of any present/ former client, employer, or partner. The author acknowledges that there are often different viewpoints on a topic, which are equally valid. Constructive discussion rather than criticism can lead to better ideas and positive outcome & value to business and society.

About the author

Alex Steinberg is an industry expert and business advisor who has helped develop and transform 30+ multinational companies and has guided governments to build their countries across key industry sectors.

Alex has designed education & training curricula, trained, and educated over 300,000 people on five continents.

Alex is currently in Afghanistan to help build the country focusing on key initiatives that positively impact the lives of millions of Afghans including Food & Agriculture, Telecommunications, Energy & Water, Mining, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Education, and other.

Alex’s life mission is to help and positively impact 700 million people using his business & technology expertise, methodologies of working with world-leading consulting firms, as well as insights into 230+ projects across all business functions, process, and value chains.

You can reach out to Alex Steinberg by connecting with him through LinkedIn Alex Steinberg 方澤昂 | LinkedIn, WhatsApp +966 531824178 (Alex is in Afghanistan, but keeps his international number), or email at alexwsteinberg@hotmail.com