Land tenure Agriculture and livestock
Afghanistan
NRVA 2005 47
Table 41: Households owning different types of livestock or poultry
The number of animals representing different types of livestock or poultry in the three categories shows that the largest numbers of animals are found in rural households;
however, Kuchi households own a substantial share, particularly camels and small ruminants goats and sheep. The number of cattle estimated in NRVA 2005 is 6
below the estimates of FAO 2003; the estimates for the number of donkeys and poultry were 36 and 29 higher than FAO estimates. However, the number of
horses, camels, goats and sheep estimated in NRVA were more than twice the estimates of FAO. The reason for this is that FAO 2003 did not fully cover the Kuchi
about 23,000 Kuchi households were assessed while according to NMAK-2004 there are 150,000 Kuchi households in the country excluding those who were
crossing borders during the winter who are the main managers of sheep, goats and camels.
Table 42: Livestock and poultry ownership 10,000
NRVA 2005 Kuchi
Rural Urban
National FAO 03
difference
Cattle 24.7 317.3
6,2 348.3
370.0 -6
OxenYaks 2.5 88.4
1.5 92.5
Horses 5.5 23.8
0.8 30.0
14.0 114
Donkeys 41.5 171.4
4.7 217.6
160.0 36 Camels 28.2
11.2 0.2
39.7 18.0
120 Goats 445.9
1,215.7 15.5
1,677.1 730.0
130 Sheep 785.7
1,259.9 30.8
2,076.4 880.0
136 Poultry 90.3
1,448.3 37.9
1,576.5 1220.0
29
The FAO survey 2003 was based on data collected in 36,700 villages covering around 3 million households while NRVA 2005 included 30,800 households in about
2600 communities or clusters representative of rural, urban and Kuchi households representing 3.9 million households nationwide. NRVA 2005 livestock figures rely
totally on household surveys. The FAO survey was based on a more extensive number of villages, but not information gathered at the household level and it did not
include urban households. This could explain the large differences for camels, sheep and goats, which have a higher degree of mobility than cattle or poultry. Imports of
animals could also explain part of these differences, but there is no information to support this. As will be discussed in the following sections, NRVA 2005 shows that
the perceptions of needs and priorities of the shura responses community level are largely influenced by the elders, who tend to dominate in the meetings. Possible
overstatements by households surveyed in NRVA 2005 for these four types of livestock should be taken into account for livestock policy interventions.
Kuchi Rural
Urban National
Cattle 48 53
5 45
Oxenyaks 8 19
1 15
Horses 13
4 1
4 Donkeys 67
40 2
35 Camels
42 2
4 Goats 68
38 2
34 Sheep 76
38 3
34 Poultry 54
52 7
44
Afghanistan
NRVA 2005 48
Table 43: Average herd or flock size
Kuchi Rural
Urban National
Cattle 2.7 1.9
1.8 2.0
OxenYak 1.7 1.5
1.9 1.5
Horses 2.2 2.0
2.0 2.0
Donkeys 3.2 1.4