Alternative Development for Northern Afghanistan

^{BEFORE                 AFTER}

^{In June 2007, a bridge project near Shohada used a 27-meter prefabricated steel bridge on new abutments to replace a failing old bridge. The new opened a marketing link for exporting hundreds of tons of walnuts and other commodities from Shohada District.}

AECOM International Development is working with the public and private sectors in northern Afghanistan through the USAID-funded Alternative Development Program (ADP) to develop agricultural enterprises and to expand sustainable employment. We are expanding agricultural enterprises, production, and marketing in the vegetable, fruit, nut, and livestock sectors; upgrading supporting economic infrastructure for irrigation, market roads, and micro-hydropower; and strengthening local private businesses for agricultural inputs, value-added processing, market access, construction, and communications, as well as Afghan government provincial and district offices.

The AECOM International Development's ADP team, local in Faizabad, Afghanistan, is providing technical assistance and training, technology transfer, construction of economic infrastructure, and financing of projects to a wide range of target beneficiaries, including agricultural enterprises, farmers, community leaders, agribusiness trades, and Afghan government provincial and district agencies. Financial returns to entrepreneurs and farmers from the integrated investment program are broadly stimulating the agricultural-based economy of northern Afghanistan and contributing to the general decline of poppy production in the region.

Major Results (as of December 2007)

• Establishment of more than 500 sustainable enterprises, including 18 cooperative enterprises, 45 fruit nurseries, 141 commercial orchards, 27 para-veterinary enterprises, 4 animal feedlot enterprises, 4 fruit drying enterprises, and 350 women's home-based nursery enterprises
• Increased productivity through training in agricultural practices to 40,000 males and 10,000 women, and improved irrigation covering 57,000 hectares
• Improved marketing for rural entrepreneurs through construction of 120 km of rehabilitated rural roads that now link production areas to market centers