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LABOUR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS
Figure 4.5: Employed population 14 years and over, by sector of employment, and by sex in percentages
10 20
30 40
50
28
8 15
13 12
4 7
7 3
2 1
7 47
13 23
1 7
1 25
15 15
11 10
7 6
6 4
1 1
Ma le Fema le
Both sexes
The geographic variation of employment in different sectors is wide. Whereas in Kabul province the share in agriculture is only 11 percent, in Helmand, Nooristan, Ghor and Zabul it is over 70 percent. On the other hand, sectors that are
characterised by more formal employment – health, education, government and UNNGO services – are relatively well represented in the employment of Paktika, Kapisa, Panshjer and Kabul over 20 percent combined. Urozgan, Helmand,
Ghor and Zabul have less than 5 percent in these sectors.
Employment in the farming and livestock sectors is almost entirely in the category of vulnerable employment
98 percent or more, whereas for manufacturing processing, construction, trade and the private service
sector it is between 84 and 94 percent. Only in the education, UNNGO and various government sectors
the percentage of vulnerable employment is 10 percent or lower. An indicator that shows the extent to which
women have access to paid employment and their integration into the monetary economy is the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector. For Afghanistan this MDG indicator is a low 11 percent.
The distribution of occupations shows a large representation of farming and livestock activities 24 and 11 percent, respectively, the former strongly male-dominated. Other categories of relative importance are sales and trade
particularly in urban areas, construction and mining, drivers, and various service work. For women, shepherding 25 percent and handicraft 20 percent are the most important single occupational categories, but in the formal sector to a
lesser extent also teaching 7 percent.
4.4.3 Working hours
Figure 4.6 shows the distribution of weekly working hours for the total working population, including those who are classiied as under- and unemployed. Whereas the majority of men work 48 hours or more per week, the majority of
working women 57 percent is concentrated in the category of 8 to 31 hours work per week. The mean hours worked per week by men and women is, respectively 45 and 30, with the median values close to the mean 48 and 28 hours,
respectively data not shown. It is likely that the fewer hours worked by women is due to their additional household
chores, like cooking, cleaning, fetching water and irewood, and taking care of children and elderly. The data on working hours also shows that on average urban workers work longer hours than rural and Kuchi workers 48 against 41 hours
per week.
MDG Indicator 3.2
Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector
11.1 percent
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LABOUR FORCE CHARACTERISTICS
Figure 4.6: Working population
a
, by sex, and by weekly working hours in percentages
5 10
15 20
25
Less than 8
8-15 16-23
24-31 32-39
40-47 48-55
56-63 64 or
more 1
4 5
14 9
12 22
18 14
4 17
20 20
11 9
8 8
3 2
6 8
15 10
11 20
16 12
Male Female
Both sexes
a
Including workers classiied as under- and unemployed
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AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK
5 AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK
SUMMARY.
The NRVA 2011-12 conirms the overriding importance of the agricultural sector for the livelihood of Afghanistan’s population. Agriculture is the main source of income of close to one-third of households and 40 percent of
the labour force are employed in the sector. Irrigated land in particular provides an important resource for 38 percent of households in the country, while 17 percent own rain-fed land. However, productivity of farmland is
often low, as indicated by the large shares of land left uncultivated – 20 percent of irrigated land and as much as 37 percent of rain-fed land – mainly due to lack of water, and secondly – but related – because of soil infertility.
Cereals, especially wheat, are the main farm produce in Afghanistan. Estimates based on responses to the
NRVA survey suggest a spring cultivation production of 2.4 million tonnes of wheat in 2011 and 2.8 million tonnes in 2012. The difference was mainly due to the drought that hit the northern provinces in 2011 and especially
affected rain-fed farmland. Maize, rice and potatoes are other staple food crops produced in signiicant quantities. Tomatoes and – from garden plots – grapes and other fruits and nuts represent other main agricultural
products. On the input side, fertilisers, seeds and machine costs are the main investments in farming. In total it is estimated that farmers spent 16.5 billion Afs. USD 309 million on farming input for the last spring cultivation.
The national stock of cattle seems to have dropped since the Livestock census of 2002-03. On the other hand, the herds of small ruminants – especially sheep – show signiicant increases. Livestock products
are an important part of the daily consumption of animal-owning households, but market sales of animals or livestock products are also an important income source for these households. With regard to livestock
production factors, the NRVA shows a relatively good vaccination coverage, but relatively low access to feed concentrate. Livestock owners signiicantly 67 percent rely on private service providers for veterinary
services. The main obstacles to using veterinary services are refusal by providers, lack of knowledge of the livestock owner and distance to the service provider.
5.1 Introduction
Agriculture – including livestock-related activities – is the backbone of Afghanistan’s economy. For around half 49 percent of households agriculture provides any source of income and for 30 percent it is even the most important
source. Similarly, with 40 percent of the labour force engaged in agriculture, it is the main sector for employment. CSO estimates that the sector contributes 27 percent to the country’s GDP in the solar year 1390 2011-12 CSO 2012.
With a varied geography and topography, out of 652 thousand square kilometres of total land area, only an estimated 12 percent is arable, 3 percent of the land is considered forest-covered, 46 percent is under permanent pasture and 39
percent is mountainous, not usable for agriculture CSO 2012.
This chapter deals with various aspects of Afghanistan’s agricultural sector and is divided into two main parts: section 5.2 on farming and horticulture, and section 5.3 on livestock-related information.
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AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK
5.2 Farming and horticulture
Land tenure in Afghanistan involves a complex system of ownership and access through renting, sharecropping and mortgaging. Furthermore, signiicant differences exist between productivity of irrigated and rain-fed land. Thus, the
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock MAIL estimates that typically yield of wheat from irrigated ields is 2.7 times higher than that from rain-fed ields MAIL 2012. Horticulture involves again harvests that have high monetary
value even though usually garden plots are small in terms of size. Consequently, this section treats the different types of land – irrigated, rain-fed and garden plot – separately, and distinguishes the different types of land tenure.
5.2.1 Irrigated land
Irrigated land tenure Some 38 percent of all households in Afghanistan – approximately 1.4 million households – own any irrigated farm land.
The majority of these land owners 58 percent have a farm size of less than 4 jeribs 0.8 ha.
1
, whereas the median and mean irrigated land size is, respectively, 3 and 6 jeribs 1.2 and 0.6 ha. Table 5.1. Compared to NRVA 2007-08,
the share of land owners with small landholdings – below four jeribs – has increased and the mean size of land owned shows a decrease from 6.7 to 6.0 jeribs, which may be due to increased population pressure.
Table 5.1: Households, by ownership of irrigated land, irrigated land size in percentages; also stating mean and median irrigated land size in jeribs
Ownership 2011
No ownership 62.1
Any ownership 37.9
Less than 2.0 jeribs 11.8
2.0-3.9 jeribs 10.3
4.0-5.9 jeribs 5.3
6.0-9.9 jeribs 3.8
10.0-19.9 jeribs 4.8
20 jeribs or more 1.9
Total 100.0
Mean land size jeribs 6.0
Median land size jeribs 3.0
Just over 6 percent of households reported having access to land without owning it. The data indicate that a similar percentage of land-owning households rent-out or mortgage-out all their irrigated land, as the total percentage of
households with access to land is about the same as that of owning land 37 percent. Especially urban households that own land in rural areas may assign other households to cultivate the land in their absence. The occurrence of this
practice is supported by the inding that access to irrigated land by urban households is lower than ownership. The percentage of irrigated land ownership by province is given in Figure 5.1.
1 One jerib is 0.2 hectare 2,000 m
2
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AGRICULTURE AND LIVESTOCK
Figure 5.1: Percentage of households owning irrigated farm land, by province
Irrigated land cultivated and not-cultivated Based on information provided by households, the total irrigated land area is around 16.8 thousand km
2
, with Helmand, Balkh and Farah accounting for almost one-third of this total area. However, much of this area is marginal land, as
country-wide almost 20 percent of the irrigated land was left fallow, leaving less than 14 thousand km
2
irrigated land cultivated. Very large differences exist with regard to the share of un-cultivated irrigated land. Of the 34 provinces,
18 record more than 10 percent fallow irrigated land, nine record more than 20 percent, and six – Paktika, Zabul, Nimroz, Jawzjan, Ghazni and Farah – more than 30 percent , of which in the latter almost half of the irrigated land is
not cultivated. Figure 5.2 shows this information by district. There seems to be a relation between the share of land left fallow and land size, as the six provinces mentioned also belong to the ten provinces with the largest mean and median
irrigated land size per household.
The reason for leaving irrigated land fallow is overwhelmingly – for 71 percent of the households with access to land – the lack of water. The second main reason – for 21 percent of the households – relates to infertility of the land. Financial
constraints 6 percent and conlict-related reasons conlict over water or land, or general insecurity for 2 percent are relatively minor reasons. However, also the reasons for not cultivating the land strongly differ across the provinces, for
some of which land infertility is the predominant concern.
