The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) on Tuesday convened the signing ceremony of the European Union (EU) funded project developed by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

According to a press release by the office of the EU special representative in Afghanistan the object of the project is to strengthen Afghanistan institution’s capacity for the assessment of agriculture production and scenario development.

The project has designed for three years with total budget of €2.5 million to improve monitoring and analysis of agriculture production systems to support agricultural policies and food security in the country, the office of EU delegation to Afghanistan said in a statement on Tuesday.

Assadullah Zamir, minister for MAIL who was speaking at signing event said,” this project aims to develop the monitoring and analyzing system of land resources and also to study the proportionate specifications of land against environmental risks at the local and national levels. This [project] also intends to strengthen Afghanistan’s Institution’s capacity for assessing agriculture production and development”.

“Afghanistan remains one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change and environmental degradation which will have a negative effect on overall agriculture sector. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to these vital linkages between agriculture development, water management, renewable energy and food security,” said Maurizio CIAN Head of Cooperation, the EU delegation to Afghanistan.

“The country has the potential to increase its output of cereals, fruits, nuts and vegetables and to develop supply chains for higher value-added products. However, the development of these supply chains will require investments to develop and imporve practices and extension services and to build downstream agro-processing capacities. In the face of such complexity, the monitoring and analysis of agriculture production systems has become one of the priorities of the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan,” said Tomio Shichiri, the FAO representative in Afghanistan.

According to the statement, farmers and government officials are the primary beneficiaries of the project.

The project will be jointly implemented by MAIL and FAO with the cooperation and support of all the other stakeholders. EU, MAIL and FAO are the main stakeholders in the project.