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About DCA

Helping the Afghan people through their livestock fghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world, with 36% of the population below the poverty line. Of the 35.5 million Afghans, about 24 million are living in the countryside, being more or less dependent on agriculture and livestock.

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  • Street # 5 of Syloo, House # 152-153, District 3, Kabul, Afghanistan
  • info.afg@dca-af.org
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DCA/Executive Director

DCA/Executive Director

Afghan Pastoralists Affirm Feed Security is Food Security

In December 2021, we had a breathtaking drive through the mountains and tunnels of the Jalalabad Road to visit pastoralists (locally referred to as Kuchis) at their winter season grazing pasture. Having passed provincial lakes, pomegranate markets, and fish sellers, the team reached the district of Qarghayi in Laghman Province where the pastoralists were settled for the winter season.

During the meeting, Gulpacha, the Sarkheil (head of the clan) said, “we have 70 households and 12,000 to 13,000 animals in the neighbourhood of Sarobi District.” The Kuchis came from Paghman District of Kabul Province. Wealth ranking indicated that there are around 25% of the population between very poor and poor, 30% between poor and medium, and 45% are better-off.

DCA, through the Community Livestock and Agriculture Project (CLAP), funded by IFAD, has been implementing livestock projects in 10 provinces of Afghanistan. The project targets the priorities set by pastoralists – feed shortage, animal health challenges, value chains, awareness, and skills gaps. The project has supported over 50,000 households.

“Before the start of DCA’s Kuchi project, livestock mortality is very high, animal medicines and vaccines are sold in the open market by uneducated traders and such products never heal or prevent diseases”, said Gulpacha.

A quick comparison of the situation before and after the project was carried out on the spot, using Participatoy Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques. Accordingly, livestock morbidity has decreased from 45% to 10%; mortality reduced from 25-35% to 5-7% and off-take (sales of animals) increased from 35% to 45%.

The current drought that caused feed shortage, combined with the impacts of COVID-19, has led to increased mortality of animals and a decrease in the number of animals sold in the market by 72.5%. In addition to community infection, COVID-19 has impacted the livelihoods of pastoralists through weak markets, lack of transportation of animals to the market, and reduced mobility in search of pasture/water leading to the spread of livestock diseases. Furthermore, support from other organizations decreased due to the pandemic. All the participants of the meeting also unveiled that DCA’s support to Kuchis has declined since the last 4 months, albeit DCA staff used to come even during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Unfortunately, several women were seen begging along the road. This is a very clear indicator of how worse the humanitarian situation is exacerbating. The pastoralists requested nothing but livestock feed. They are requesting to receive free or subsidized livestock feed in response to the emergency, and a feed bank that could reduce the amount of money they spend for buying feed. “For those of us who have many animals, over 200 sheep and goats, we pay more than Afs300,000 per year. If we don’t have enough money, the animals will die”. For the pastoralists, food security means feed security.