Project Objectives
The project is in line with the objectives of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock to contribute to poverty alleviation for the rural population as expressed in the Agriculture Master Plan.

The specific objective of the project is to develop a demand oriented and export led perennial horticulture industry.

The project will create a core of knowledge for the perennial horticulture industry in Afghanistan, centred on knowledge of the best varieties and the best growing techniques to help in the development of a high quality export horticulture industry that responds to the requirements of customers in those countries that are willing to pay high prices for Afghan fruits and nuts.
The project aims to be one of the key players in the development of the horticulture industry in Afghanistan.

Perennial Horticulture Development Centres
The project has built buildings for Perennial Horticulture Development Centres at three Ministry research farms in Herat, Nangarhar, and Kabul. An existing building is used at Kandahar, and buildings will be built in Balkh and Kunduz when new funding becomes available. The buildings comprise office, laboratory and teaching room. These Centres will become permanent facilities for MAIL.

The fields at these Centres provide the facilities to hold the collections of the fruit and nut varieties, to test and demonstrate modern methods of fruit growing, and to train staff from the Ministry and from the farming community.

The National Collection of Varieties of Fruits and Nuts
The project has completed the collection of all the fruit and nut varieties in the country. This collection is intended as a permanent resource for the benefit of everyone working in horticulture in Afghanistan.

Once the varieties are collected and catalogued, the value of the varieties will be assessed, and the project will be able to make recommendations to orchard growers on which varieties will best suit their different markets and different climates and growing conditions

Distribution of clean planting materials
The project has consulted with the 22 local nursery growers associations, who have selected the varieties and clones which in their opinion have the best market potential. The project has provided more than 10,000 mother stock trees of registered clones of peach, plum, apricot and almond to mother stock nurseries sponsored by each association. These mother stock trees have the potential for supplying 2.5 million buds for certified tree production by 2011, and about 5 million certified trees within five years.

Clean planting materials
The project has prepared a programme for identifying virus and similar diseases in fruit trees and vines at the new Perennial Horticulture Development Centre at Badam Bagh, Kabul. A follow up programme will clean trees from viruses by using heat treatments (thermotherapy).

The cleaned plants will then be maintained in conditions that avoid re-infection, and cleaned materials will be provided to mother nurseries who agree to follow the highest standards of cleanliness. These mother nurseries then multiply the small numbers of cleaned plants and supply other nurseries who again multiply the plants until enough cleaned materials are obtained to plant all the orchards and vineyards in the country.

Nursery growers’ associations
The fruit tree nursery growers are important in multiplying and distributing the improved trees to the orchard growers. The project has helped support the creation of 22 fruit tree nursery growers’ associations. These local associations are members of the Afghanistan National Nursery Growers’ Organisation (ANNGO), which was also set up with the help of the project. The national and local associations will set standards for fruit tree production, so that in future the farmers can buy trees with guaranteed trueness to type and health status.

Demonstration orchards
At each of the Perennial Horticulture Development Centres, the project has planted demonstration orchards. The demonstration orchards are mainly concerned with demonstrating a range of varieties to grower, but are also used to show the latest ideas in orchard management, as well as to train Ministry staff and farmers in all aspects of fruit growing. The project has also provided trees to partner organisations for the planting of over 200 demonstration orchards of peach, plum, apricot and almond in 25 provinces around the country.

Working with Farmers
The project has made agreements with several NGOs and provided them with funds to deliver services to farmers. These services vary according to the needs of the different areas, but include training in orchard management, support to planting of new orchards, development of new fruit tree nurseries, assistance in developing processing units, support in marketing to get better prices for the farmers produce, and many other activities in 19 of the 34 provinces of the country.