Re- Generate the Income of Vulnerable IPC phase 3 and 4 Households, Especially Female-Headed, Through poultry Package Support in Lal wa Sarjangal District of Ghor Province. The combined impact of a series of acute droughts since 2018, the protracted political crisis and conflict that affected the country for over forty years and economic collapse in the second half of 2021 has generated a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions. High acute food insecurity persists across Afghanistan, as a combination of a collapsing economy and drought is depriving nearly 20 million Afghans of food, classified in Crisis or Emergency (IPC Phases 3 or 4), between March and May 2022 (the lean season) as per the recent IPC report. Among these are about 6.6 million people in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and 13 million in Crisis (IPC Phase 3). Afghanistan’s food security situation remains highly concerning, exacerbated by economic decline and high food prices. About 6.6 million people are classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), characterized by large food gaps and/ or employing emergency coping strategies to access food. For the first time since the introduction of IPC in Afghanistan, Catastrophe conditions (IPC Phase 5) were detected for 20,000 people in Ghor province. 

A weak to moderate La Niña event has been affecting Afghanistan since October 2021. Precipitation anomaly experienced at the start of season which has led to below average precipitation, still exists across most parts of the country. Additionally, low soil moisture and low snow water volumes have already led to moisture stress. As result of the below average wet season, its expected that the upcoming harvest will be below average in the province Ghor. Ghor is a province with one of the highest number of food insecure people. In the recent IPC analysis, 2% of people has been classified in IPC phase 5, for the first time in history of IPC in Afghanistan, 23% in IPC phase 4 and 25% in IPC phase. 

SFSA 2022 data also show a worrying food security situation in Ghor. According to this assessment, nearly 87.6% of people have either poor or borderline food consumption and only 5.2% of people have acceptable food consumption. In terms of HHDS, 49.4% of people consume only less than 4 types of food. To cope with the food consumption gap, 18% of people are resorting to emergency livelihood copping and 54.2% crisis coping strategies. According to the SFSA data, cereal stock for 87% of people lasts only less than 3 months. This means that during the lean season, which is now, all of these people are running out of food stock, and they need urgent humanitarian assistance.

VOPOFA will support 8,309 individuals (1,187 households) in Lal wa Sarjangal district of Ghor province with poultry package assistance to improve the daily food consumption of targeted HHs and to augment their income. VOPOFA will support these vulnerable food insecure households with one time poultry package delivery. As per the FSAC recommendation, every targeted household will receive 30 chickens (3 roaster and 27 hens), 150kg feed, 3 drinkers, 3 feeders and a chicken coop. Each household will receive a package worth of $395 in-kind assistance. The assistance will build the livelihoods of targeted vulnerable households and improve their resilience against shocks.  

Food commodity prices have increased significantly, and income reduced for majority of the households in Ghor. Among all others, female-headed households are the most vulnerable food insecure category. In the remote areas like Lal wa Sarjangal distrtic, the families are completely dependent on rainfed agriculture. With the back-to-back drought, this has made household extremely food insecure. To address the need and alleviate suffering, VOPOFA supports IPC phase 3 and 4 households with poultry support. The special focus will be women headed and households with disability. This is also to mention that VOPOFA has extensive experience in implementing both broiler and layer poultry projects in central highlands provinces.