KABUL, 19 May 2009 (IRIN) - Heavy rain and flash floods have caused extensive damage to agricultural land and livestock losses across Afghanistan, leaving hundreds of rural families in need of assistance, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL).
Over 5,525 hectares of agriculture land, some 22,000 livestock and about 4,200 fruit trees have been destroyed by floods in the past two months, Majid Qarar, a MAIL spokesman, told IRIN in Kabul. He said every hectare of the land in question produced at least three tonnes of wheat.
Rising temperatures could result in snow melting rapidly in mountain areas, causing more floods in the coming weeks, aid agencies said.
The spring floods have killed over 150 people and damaged hundreds of houses in at least 10 of the country's 34 provinces over the past two months, Afghanistan's National Disasters Management Authority (ANDMA) said.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), floods have affected about 10,000 households in five provinces in the north.
Aid workers in the northern provinces of Badakhshan, Balkh, Baghlan, Faryab, Sar-e-Pol and Samangan have called for a speedy replenishment of aid stocks as thousands of flood-affected families are in need of urgent protection and relief.
OCHA has reported gaps in the provision of emergency shelters and non-food aid items such as blankets and clothes in Balkh Province.
Need for assistance
Over seven million people are believed to be food insecure, most of them in drought-affected rural areas where 80 percent of rain-fed agriculture failed due to lack of rain in 2008.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has predicted an up to 50 percent increase in agriculture yields in 2009, but recent flash floods and avalanches have inflicted a heavy blow on the livelihoods of hundreds, if not thousands, of farming families.
"I've lost everything in the floods," said a farmer in Baghlan Province.
"We need food assistance from the government and aid organisations," said another farmer, Gul Ahmad, in Balkh Province.
The government said it plans to assist flood-affected families through short-term relief distributions, the longer-term rebuilding of destroyed houses and the rehabilitation of agriculture.
"We're worried about families who have lost their livelihoods in the floods," said Qarar, MAIL's spokesman, adding: "We will help vulnerable farmers with the reconstruction of irrigation systems and the provision of certified seeds and fertilizers."
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