The European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have launched a \u20ac5 million programme to support farmers and agribusinesses in Afghanistan, focusing on access to markets, improved incomes and reduced vulnerability to climate and economic shocks.<\/p>\n
According to the two bodies, the programme targets vulnerable families, including returnees, internally displaced people and host communities, particularly in areas facing food insecurity, climate risks and limited economic opportunities. Women and young people have also been identified as key recipients of the support.<\/p>\n
Under the plan, four one-stop service centres will be established to connect farmers and rural entrepreneurs with agricultural advice, specialist services, businesses and markets. Farmers will also be given access to FAO climate analysis and early warning information so they can make timely decisions on production and marketing.<\/p>\n
The programme also includes the restoration of 2,000 hectares of degraded forests and pastures and support for 250 nurseries run by women and local communities. Organisers said this part of the plan is designed to link environmental protection with the creation of new livelihood opportunities.<\/p>\n
FAO said it will provide matching grants, technical support and business advice to food and agriculture companies, as well as environmentally friendly businesses with growth potential. Under the plan, participating companies will also contribute part of their own resources to expand processing capacity, buy more from local farmers and increase employment in rural areas.<\/p>\n
Nicolae Blomme, the European Union’s new charg\u00e9 d’affaires for Afghanistan, said the programme is part of the EU’s commitment to food security and economic empowerment. Richard Trenchard, FAO’s representative in Afghanistan, also said that despite difficult conditions, food chain businesses in Afghanistan have shown potential for growth and job creation.<\/p>\n
FAO is the United Nations specialized agency for food and agriculture and typically plays a role in programmes related to food security, natural resource management and support for rural livelihoods in Afghanistan, a country where a large share of the population depends on farming and livestock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EU and FAO launch a \u20ac5 million programme to support Afghan farmers, boost incomes and strengthen climate resilience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,17,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-important-news","category-top-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}