'Afghanistan Expects Biggest Wheat Harvest In Decades', Daily Times, 2 June 2009
EXCERPT: "Afghanistan is projected this year to collect its biggest wheat harvest in 32 years, taking the impoverished country to near self-sufficiency in the staple crop, the agriculture minister said Tuesday. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) expects a bumper harvest that is 63 percent higher than that of last year, mainly because of good rains, Agriculture Minister Asif Rahimi told reporters. Other factors were a 20 percent increase in farmland devoted to wheat — a result of last year's high prices for the crop — and the provision to farmers of seeds and fertilisers, he said. 'The wheat harvest this year will be record high for the past 32 years if the projection proves to be accurate,' Rahimi said. This yield would mean Afghanistan would have to buy in only 200,000 metric tonnes of wheat compared to 2.1 million tonnes last year, he said. And it would make Afghanistan only 10 percent short of self sufficiency in wheat for the year, the minister said."
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See also:
'Best harvest in Afghanistan for 32 years', ReliefWeb, 2 June 2009
'"High price, recession increase hunger in South Asia"', AFP, 2 June 2009
'Wheat more expensive in Afghanistan than elsewhere: WFP', AlertNet, 20 May 2009
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