The Economy

Afghans are small farmers, growing wheat, barley, corn, and rice as major crops for internal consumption. Orchards are also highly prized and produce fruits and nuts for export. Opium cultivation also has a long tradition in Afghanistan. Opium has constituted the country's biggest cash crop and most successful export. Apparently yielding to Western pressure, the Taliban banned opium cultivation in 2000, but it remains to be seen whether the ban will hold under new administration.

There are some areas of Afghanistan that receive enough rain to dependably water the crops and to fill ditches, canals, and underground water systems. In these places, notably north of the Hindu Kush and east of Kabul, excellent crops can be grown. However, only about 12% of the land is arable. Over the last four years, drought in Afghanistan has destroyed agriculture even in these areas, partly accounting for the current desperate need for food. The major cultivation areas are also the areas of densest population, notably the Kabul-Jalalabad corridor, the Turkestan Plains across the north, the Arghandab valley around Kandahar, and pockets here and there around the major cities and towns.

Well over 40% of the land in Afghanistan is high pastureland. Accordingly, the country has a tradition of nomadism in which herds of sheep, goats, and occasionally cattle are taken up to high mountain pastures for extended periods of time. Today, however, there remain few true nomads – people with no permanent residence who migrate with their flocks. The typical herdsman is usually a small farmer as well, with a permanent home and village from which he takes his flocks to summer pasturage, leaving family members behind to care for the crops. The skins of the highly valued qarakul sheep of northern Afghanistan are one of the country’s most profitable products, and wool is also an export commodity. Dairy cattle, used also as draft animals, are found in most parts of the country.

In towns, there are traders and tea houses, as well as fulltime craft specialists, such as potters, weavers, and shoemakers. However, few such centers exist in Afghanistan, which is still a land of small villages. Only the large cities, and particularly the capital, Kabul, have a modernized economic sector, although a very small number of factories and mining centers exist in other locations.

The Cultural Orientation Project--http://www.culturalorientation.net, for more information contact sanja@cal.org
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