Anticipatory actions to mitigate the impact of drought on agricultural livelihoods in acutely food insecure rural areas of Afghanistan The 2021 La Niña event, which started in early October, is expected to continue through March 2022, following an already below-average season due to last year's La Niña event. This will likely result in another spate of drought condition, which could lead to reduced yields and crop losses for the winter wheat season in north-eastern and central provinces of Afghanistan, while reduced snowfall in mountainous areas may reduce irrigation water supplies in the spring months.  This is likely to result in a significant uptick in humanitarian needs in affected areas, with farmers and herders most affected by drought typically needing three to five years to recover.  
Between November 2021 and March 2022, the number of people in IPC Phase 3 or above is projected at 22.8 million, a nearly 35 percent increase from the same season last year (16.9 million people), with 8.7 million will likely be in IPC Phase 4. If the fast-growing crisis is not contained as a matter of urgency, there is a serious risk that the humanitarian system will not be able to avoid the risk that the most vulnerable are pushed from IPC Phase 4 into IPC Phase 5. Anticipatory action is needed now to protect lives and livelihoods. Accordingly, actions to safeguard food security by protecting agricultural livelihoods are critical moving forward into the 2021-22 winter and 2022 spring seasons. The window of opportunity to provide support is narrowing particularly for (1) marginal/vulnerable livestock keepers ahead of the harsh winter months and ( 2) season-critical agricultural inputs for backyard production of nutritious food (vegetables). This is given to these vulnerable food insecure households to safeguard their food security and coping capacities to effectively mitigate the adverse impacts emanating from the forecasted lower than average precipitation and higher than average temperatures leading to depleted soil moisture levels and poor pasture /vegetation growth conditions in the winter-spring months of 2022. 
Through this anticipatory action project, FAO will address the immediate humanitarian needs of vulnerable livestock keeping families and landless / marginal asset holding families in the Faryab, Ghor, Kunar, and Samangan Provinces - given the expanded humanitarian access and the underserved / unmet humanitarian needs in these provinces – to prevent the loss of lives as a consequence of acute food insecurity, through the provision of season-critical livestock protection inputs and agriculture  inputs, as per the FSAC recommended responses packages. 
There is a need to invest in Early Warning Systems (EWS). The is due to multiple factors: 
- Ongoing La Nina event 
- Depleted technical capacities in national institutions on Early Warning System (EWS) coupled with lack of technical staff amongst de facto authorities at sub-national / local levels
- the withdrawal of FEWSNET and World Bank investments on Drought-EWS from Afghanistan 
Through this project, FAO will aim to establish a community-based drought EWS. This will allow real-time monitoring of pertinent indicators on hydro-agrometeorological factors, agricultural livelihoods and food insecurity changes. This will inform the potential impact analysis and designing of early action advisories on plant/animal diseases’ management to be provided in a timely manner to herders and farmers / backyard vegetable cultivators.
Underpinned by the anticipatory actions approach, FAO will work with FSAC partners - through this project - to assist drought-affected livestock keeping and landless / marginal asset-holding families to achieve enhanced resilience to future shocks through the provision of: 
1.	Livestock protection package consisting of: concentrate animal feed, fodder-crop seeds and deworming support and
2.	Backyard vegetable cultivation / home gardening package complemented with technical training
# of Beneficiaries: 9,000 HHs in vegetable cultivation and 8,000 HHs in livestock protection package