Incentives Driving Economic Alternatives for the North, East and West (IDEA-NEW) Quarterly Report, April-June 2013

The program's mission is to promote income generation and job creation through increased commercial agricultural opportunities for Afghan farmers in poppy-prone areas. IDEA-NEW focuses on activities that strengthen farm to market linkages in economic development corridors in its three target regions and work to grow viable agribusinesses by facilitating connections between producers, traders and buyers through market information activities and sales promotion. The program works closely with provincial- and district-level government and local communities to build strong relationships among local stakeholders. Three partners implement IDEA-NEW: Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) programs in the East and West, ACDI/VOCA operates in the North, and Mercy Corps works in the Northeast. In the past year, IDEA-NEW implemented programming in seventeen provinces across Regional Commands-North, East and West. The third quarter of FY2013 began with the successful completion of several activities, including underground cold storage units, dormant oil application and orchard pruning. Subsequently, IDEA-NEW launched new projects in its grape, orchard, vegetable and poultry value chains. Other highlights included: * 3,512,658 AFN ($61,420) was earned by female farmers engaged in IDEA-NEW's commercial fruit and vegetable production activities across the Northeast region. * 493 vineyard owners attended disease management and grape vine shoot thinning field days in five Northern provinces. * 303 female students from Nangarhar, Laghman and Kunar graduated from Taraqi Saba, and another 401 young women are participating in the first Taraqi Saba course ever held in Parwan, Kapisa and Panjshir provinces. * 74,608,732 AFN ($1,304,580) in sales was generated by vegetable growers in the Northeast, demonstrating the economic impact that can occur by using improved agricultural inputs and modern cultivation methods. * 612 Northern wheat farmers came to harvesting field days held at 18 demonstration plots. IDEA-NEW's programming focuses around eight value chains: grapes, orchard crops, vegetables, poultry, wheat, silk, honey and karakul (Astrakhan or Persian lamb). Highlights in each of these areas from April-June 2013 are presented below. In the grape value chain, IDEA-NEW's efforts continued throughout the quarter with 21 field days being held for 493 vineyard owners on disease management and grape vine shoot thinning at demonstration plots in Jawzjan, Sari Pul, Samangan, Faryab and Balkh provinces. Attendees learned about powdery mildew disease and how applying wettable sulfur spray could prevent it, as well as the benefits of vine shoot thinning and converting traditional vineyards to commercial I and T trellising systems. IDEA-NEW's trellising project, which runs in all five Northern target provinces, teaches grape growers new methods of grape cultivation and supports them in trellising their vineyards, which prevents diseases, damage to branches and increases the quality and yield of grapes. In this program, farmers pay only 50% of the subsidized price for trellising their vineyards. During this quarter, 45 vineyards measuring 8.168 hectares (ha) were converted to trellised systems and a total of 5,255 concrete posts were installed in the vineyards. To date, 39.06 ha have been trellised in Faryab, Jawzjan, Balkh, Samangan and Sari Pul. Purchase orders were signed with five private sector partners (PSP) to produce 3,840 concrete trellising across the Northern provinces. The following table presents the number of posts produced between April 1 and June 30, 2013: District Province Status Total posts produced Maymana Faryab Production continued throughout the quarter.