Overview

This six-year project, with UC Davis and Texas A&M University, promoted livestock sector development by resolving pastoral land tenure conflicts that had resulted from years of war, rangeland conversion, land grabbing, the expansion of villages, and village relocations.  It introduced Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) to new technologies in rangeland management and livestock production and marketing.  The $6.7 million project’s goal was to reduce economic risk for Kuchis, who are nomadic herders, by helping MAIL develop rangeland monitoring techniques and by facilitating the resolution of land access and tenure issues along important migration routes.  The project strengthened government capacity by training those responsible for livestock production, rangeland management, and land conflict resolution.  This included staff at the MAIL, the Independent Department of Kuchi, the President’s Peace Commission, and Kabul University. This project ended in October 2012.

Main Activities

• Enable village and herder stakeholders to resolve longstanding land use conflicts.
• Train provincial directors and other staff of the Independent Department of Kuchi Affairs and provide technology training to MAIL staff
• Provide technical support to MAIL for the Livestock Marketing Information System, Livestock Early Warning System and Livestock Nutritional Profiling System]

Results of the  Project

• 75 PEACE Ambassadors have solved more than 863 land use disputes in seven regions.
• Facilitated monthly meetings of Kuchi leaders in 30 provinces.
• Trained provincial directors of the Independent Department of Kuchi Affairs in 31 provinces on ways to resolve land disputes with MAIL.
• Conducted peace-building workshops for more than 545 Kuchi and non-Kuchi leaders.
• Conducted rangeland surveys in 15 provinces, including that of summer grazing land.
• Helped MAIL develop rangeland law and a National Plan for Rangeland Management.
• Developed e-learning modules for nutritional profiling technology in Dari and Pashto.
• Trained 2034 Afghans in natural resources management and/or biodiversity conservation.
• Implemented the Livestock Early Warning System, a satellite-based weather and vegetation greenness system to provide information on foraging conditions.
• Generated information on forage quality by means of the Livestock Nutritional Profiling System to permit MAIL to rank rangelands and decide on the use of alternative supplemental feeds.
• Developed a website http://afghanmarketprices,org/lmis to disseminate information on prices and quantities at livestock markets in Kabul, Mazar and Jalalabad.