KHANABAD IRRIGATION II

closed

The proposed project aims to develop agriculture by rehabilitating and extending existing irrigation and drainage schemes, extending agriculture credit to farmers and providing an efficient extension service. It also aims at controlling malaria in the project area, and includes a feasibility study for a dam about 90 km upstream of the project area for water resources development. It aims to increase agricultural productivity and production on about 41,500 ha and to benefit about 12,000 families. Absolute rural poverty level in Afghanistan is currently estimated at US$84 per capita. After the implementation of the first Khanabad project 55 percent of the project farmers will still be in absolute poverty. These would be addressed by the proposed project. Within 9 years the project would increse average income of owner operators by 40 percent and sharecroppers by 20 percent. A risk exists that the extension service might not become fully effective by 1982 and that there would be some shortfall in the maximum projected yield. The project, however, would still be viable even if an effective extension service were significantly delayed or hampered.