The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Agro-Ecological Zoning Atlas

Book excerpt: Agriculture is crucial for the national economy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Adoption of new strategies for agriculture monitoring, rural land use planning, and management are urgently required to reduce hunger and poverty and to assure sustainable food and feed production for future generations. The availability of reliable information on natural resources and agriculture for its monitoring and analysis is indispensable to the development and implementation of such strategies. For this purpose the project “Strengthening Afghanistan Institutions’ Capacity for the Assessment of Agriculture Production and Scenario Development” (GCP/AFG/087/EC), funded by the European Union (EU), is implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Within the context of this project, FAO and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) are developing a National Agro-Ecological Zoning activity (NAEZ) in Afghanistan. This Atlas is the first of two books and provides the collected information and maps of the country based on the agro-climatic Indicators.