FAO FAAHM Project Launched Phase II with EC Funding

he Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Food (MAAHF) signed the agreement with European Commission (EC) for funding the Support to the Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Information Management and Policy Unit (FAAHM) in Developing an Agricultural Statistics and Market Information System – Phase II Project up to 31 July 2009.

The FAAHM Unit was created in July 2003 by MAAHF as an output of two FAO projects - one financed by the United States of America and the other by the Republic of Germany. Funded by the Republic of Germany, FAAHM Phase I aimed at strengthening the institutional capacities of Afghanistan in the food and agriculture sector. This two-year project which will close on 31 August 2006 is concentrating on strengthening the food security monitoring and analytical capacity of MAAHF. This project has identified, collated, and organized existing and newly generated data on agriculture, rural markets, food security and nutrition. The project is also building the capacity of FAAHM in terms of staffing, equipment and technical knowledge. It has enhanced MAAHF’s ability to act upon appropriate information for short term interventions as well as medium term policy and programme formulation.

The activities of the FAAHM I project include: (i) publication of quarterly Agriculture Prospects Reports covering crop production monitoring and assessment; (ii) monthly retail market price data collection, processing and dissemination covering 33 commodities from 34 provincial centres; (iii) collection, processing and dissemination of weekly/daily retail market prices of selected agricultural commodities; (iv) conduct of provincial agricultural sample surveys in six provinces on a pilot basis; (v) collection and processing of district level agricultural data from 72 districts in six provinces; (vi) training of central and provincial staff in agricultural data collection, basic statistics, sampling, crop monitoring, assessment and reporting; and (vii) provide policy advice to MAAHF.

The EC-funded second phase project is based on the long-term development strategy for the policy functions of the MAAHF, which was initiated under an earlier project funded by Germany. In line with this strategy, the capacity of MAAHF is being developed to enable the collection, analysis and utilisation of information for the formulation of food security and other policies and strategies with the ultimate aim of reducing poverty and food insecurity in Afghanistan.

Earlier projects were funded under the emergency mode and the emphasis was on rapid assessments with limited attention being paid to capacity building. The new project will initiate longer term capacity building in MAAHF for food security information management and economic analysis of policies related to food security issues to ensure the sustainability of these activities.

The immediate objectives of the project are to (i) assist the MAAHF in developing an Agricultural Statistics and Market Information System (ASMIS) in support of agricultural development planning and policy making, with particular focus on food security and poverty alleviation, and (ii) strengthen the institutional and technical capacity of MAAHF and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) to provide timely and more reliable agriculture and price data, conduct and report on marketing studies, and implement situational and policy analysis for the use of decision makers.

The project will focus on capacity building and developing a sustainable food security information system that has a crop and livestock monitoring component; a Statistics and Economic Analysis Unit; a market information system; and a Database Management Unit.