Wheat Donations Have Been Vital in Afghan Humanitarian Effort

Three years of drought brought hardship to Afghanistan, a country whose people had already been struggling, but it was five years of brutal Taliban misrule and neglect that pushed Afghanistan over the edge. As winter approached, nearly 1.5 million Afghans were at risk of starving and another 6 million Afghans were – and still are – dependent on outside assistance to survive the combination of a harsh winter, pre-famine conditions, and the dislocation at the hands of conflict.

Wheat donations have been vital in the humanitarian effort. It is the staple food in the regional diet, with wheat foods (flatbreads and biscuits) contributing over 50% of the per capita caloric intake and 85% of the protein. One 110 lb. bag of wheat will last a family of four approximately one month. The United Nation’s World Food Program (WFP), which is leading global relief efforts in Afghanistan, estimates that the country needs 52,000 tons of food aid each month.

U.S. wheat has been an integral part of the international lifeline for the Afghans. For the last several years, the U.S. has been the largest food donor to Afghanistan, supplying more than 80% of all food shipments, including 292,880 metric tons of wheat for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. In fiscal year 2000, the U.S. provided 135,000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan, and the year before that the U.S. donated 100,000 tons of food, most of it wheat.

While the U.S. contributed $55 million worth of wheat this last year, along with a cash contribution of $15 million, we are not alone in the massive humanitarian effort. EURAID also contributed wheat, worth $30 million, and Australia gave $7.2 million worth of flour. Cash contributions for aid came from Chile, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and several European countries: Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Thailand donated rice.

Afghans farmers are planting their winter wheat again, but there are forecasts that it may be another year of drought, which could decimate this crop again.

Andrew Natsios, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (which has been directing U.S. humanitarian efforts) reminded people recently that food aid is not a permanent function of the U.S. “We don’t want to depress the agricultural market so much that there is no incentive for farmers to continue to produce food locally,” he said. “The faster we can get people off of food aid to produce their  and eat their own food, the better off the country will be.

“So our policy is not to have any food aid eventually, but that will take several years, he continued. “There are destitute widows, there are orphan kids, there are women who are elderly who are incapable of supporting themselves. We will have to feed them for some time.

“But we want to reduce the volume of this and it will be contingent on how the crop looks. If the crop looks good, we’re going to dramatically drop our food distributions. If it looks like it’s another drought year, we may have to go back up again and continue to distribute at high levels.”

Wheat donations have played a role in providing women of Afghanistan with opportunities, and respect, generally denied them by the oppressive Taliban regime. Afghan women have been the backbone of in-country feeding efforts, and they will continue to play a vital role in the coming years. While the Taliban was in charge, women were not allowed to work freely and openly.  Some bakeries even had to be temporarily closed as the authorities clamped down, preventing them from working there. (Story and courtesy U.S. Wheat Associates)