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In the Afghanistan calendar, spring lasts from 21 March to 21 June; summer from 22 June to 22 September; autumn from 23 September to 21 December; and winter from 22 December to 20 March.
Food insecurity varies significantly between winter-spring and summer-autumn periods of the year despite the inherent high level of food insecurity across Afghanistan
Figure 8.2.
Overall food insecurity is estimated at the highest level of 48 percent of the total households in the winter of 2013-
14 December 2013-March 2014 and 47 percent in spring of 2014. It dramatically declines to 23 percent in summer of 2014, and slightly increases again to 26 percent in autumn 2014. The variation
of food insecurity is not significant when comparing the winter with the spring, and the summer with the autumn for urban, rural and Kuchi households.
Seasonal differences also occur across rural and urban areas. A higher proportion of food-insecure households is reported in spring and winter in urban areas 41 percent and 46 percent, respectively
.
A similar higher proportion of food insecure households is reported in rural areas in winter 50 percent and in spring 47 percent. Food insecurity significantly declines in summer and autumn in both urban
and rural areas. For the Kuchi, since the survey took place only in summer and autumn, no data on food insecurity during winter and spring were available. The lower proportion of food insecure
households reported for autumn among the Kuchi households 8 percent compared to the summer period 14 percent is likely due to higher income from selling livestock and dried dairy products which
is usually practiced in autumn, and result in an overall better household food consumption.
Figure 8.2: Percentage of food insecure households, by residence, and by season
8.4.2 Harvest and lean season’s differences
The main harvest period is generally between May and July for main staples including wheat, maize and barley crops. The post-harvest period is usually from August to mid-December, and pre-harvest
the lean season is generally from mid-December to April. However, there is considerable variation in these seasons across the country.
Considering these three distinct periods of the harvest, post-harvest and lean season in 2014 when the survey took place, there is a general decrease in the proportion of food-insecure people between the
48 47
23 26
41 46
18 14
50 47
26 31
14 8
10 20
30 40
50 60
W in
ter 2
1 4
Sp rin
g 2
1 4
Su m
m er
2 1
4
A u
tu m
n 2
1 4
W in
ter 2
1 4
Sp rin
g 2
1 4
Su m
m er
2 1
4
A u
tu m
n 2
1 4
W in
ter 2
1 4
Sp rin
g 2
1 4
Su m
m er
2 1
4
Au tu
m n
2 1
4
Su m
m er
2 1
4
A u
tu m
n 2
1 4
National Urban
Rural Kuchi
P er
ce n
tag e
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lean season and the harvest period across all regions
Table 8.6
. Moving to the post-harvest period, the percentage of food-insecure people continues decreasing in the south-west, west and south-east
regions, while it remains almost unchanged in the central and east regions. Conversely, the food security significantly deteriorates during the post-harvest period in the central highlands, north-east
and north regions. The above findings indicate that the critical period of food insecurity usually occurs during the lean season that generally lasts from mid-December to April in most parts of the country,
and can extend to July in Badakhshan and the provinces of the central highlands. A comparison across population groups shows a similar trend, with the largest proportion of people
facing food insecurity during the lean season and the lowest during the harvest period. For rural areas, the percentage of the population who were food insecure steadily decreased from 44 percent in the
lean season to 31 percent in the harvest period, but increases to 37 percent in the post-harvest period. For the Kuchi households, their food insecurity is apparently the lowest in the lean season and highest
during the harvest period. This is likely because the Kuchi are less dependent on the crop farming cycle and the seasonality of livestock production is different from the cropping seasonality. For
example, when the lean season still exists in early summer when the main wheat crop is not harvested yet in some provinces due to their later harvest, livestock of the Kuchi there already start producing
more milk which results in increased consumption of dairy products and overall food consumption score. When the crop is harvested in summer or late summer, the milking production of livestock
already reduces or even ends leading to decreased consumption of dairy products and, hence, poorer food consumption score during the harvest period. But after a few months during autumn, which
coincides with the post-harvest period when young livestock born in the spring reach the age of 5-6 months, the Kuchi usually sell them prior to the winter to get cash for purchasing food stocks in
preparation for the winter. Increased selling of livestock during the post-harvest period could bring more income for the Kuchi households and allow them to afford a more diverse diet.
In urban areas, food insecurity also decreases from the lean season to the harvest period and further decreases in the post-harvest period although the variation between these periods is less pronounced
than in rural areas. Since food insecurity in urban areas and among the Kuchi is affected not only by the amount of harvested crop available in the urban markets, but also by other market and economic
factors, livestock production related factors, the variability of food insecurity here seems to go beyond seasonal cropping pattern.
Table 8.6: Percentage of food-insecure households, by harvest season, and by region in percentages, 2014
Region Lean
Harvest Post-harvest
season period
period National
39.2 28.9
33.6 Central
30.3 12.8
11.0 Central highland
38.2 32.2
56.4 Eastern
15.1 12.5
10.6 North
48.2 30.6
40.2 North-east
63.5 33.8
50.4 South-east
40.9 24.7
21.3 South-west
49.4 43.5
29.0 West
50.2 36.5
30.6 Urban
32.8 29.2
26.3 Rural
43.9 30.7
36.7 Kuchi
7.4 14.4
10.0
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8.5 Food access and supply
