Emergency livelihood support through home gardening for improved income and nutrition in Herat and Farah Afghanistan is facing an increasingly complex humanitarian crisis. Worsening drought impacts on crops and livestock, the effects of two decades of conflicts, the collapse of many public services after August 2021 and deepening economic crisis ,now exacerbated by  rising inputs and food prices linked to the war in Ukraine, are having a deep impact on poverty, food security and agriculture livelihoods. 
High acute food insecurity persists across Afghanistan. In the current period, 19.7 million (47% of the analysed population) are estimated to be in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis) or above. This includes 20,000 people in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe), 6.6 million people (16%) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency) and 13 million (31%) in IPC Phase 3 (Crisis). Compared to the previous period, November 2021 to March 2022, which classified 22.8 M people in IPC Phase 3 and above, the reduction of the population facing high and critical level of acute food insecurity has been minimal and mainly driven by partners’ efforts in scaling up humanitarian assistance. 
In 2022 farmers and herders are dealing with the 3rd drought in 5 years (2018, 2021 amp 2022) with adverse impacts on crop production, livestock health, local ecosystems, and agricultural amp landless rural HHs’ coping capacities. 
More than 70 percent of Afghans live in rural areas. Unless continuous actions for urgent safeguarding agriculture livelihoods are undertaken in the rural areas of Afghanistan now, there is a real risk of the rural economy and local markets collapsing, which may lead to a significant number of areas currently in IPC Phase 3+ to slip down into IPC Phase 4+,   including expanding the localized famine already reported in May, hence deepening the humanitarian crisis. Targeted livelihood-protecting humanitarian support is thus urgently needed to stop further humanitarian and financial consequences from spiraling out of control. The recent increase in food prices further emphasized the importance of support to local production of food including wheat and other stable crops, livestock and associated products and the relevance of backyard farming to sustain income and access to nutritious foods. 
Through this project, FAO will address the immediate humanitarian needs in two ways: a) increasingproduction and availability of nutritious foods at the household and community level and b) sustaining income generation of most vulnerable households, women headed households with limited access to land in particular. 
The project will provide vegetable cultivation packages (high quality seeds of eight locally important vegetables amp pulses /crops and hand tools) to 74,600 vulnerable households benefitting 522,200 people in Qala-e-Kah and Farah districts for Farah and Injil and Shiendand districts of Herat Province with access to backyard cultivation space to increase production and productivity Women headed households will be prioritized. The package includes : 820 gr of high quality vegetable  seed  10 kg of pulses hand tools (shovel, rake, hoe) and technical training. A beneficiary profile, selection and registration process will be undertaken at the outset based and criteria for beneficiary targeting to ensure most vulnerable and needy households are targeted in this project. Beneficiaries will be selected in collaboration with the local community according to vulnerability-based beneficiary selection criteria set by FAO in which all households in the community self-select themselves into three groups according to their assets and livelihood condition: very poor/vulnerable, not so poor, and better off. Packages and in-kind inputs will be distributed ensuring that proper COVID-19 safety measures, no crowding, convenient timings and protection concerns are addressed. Technical trainings will be provided, given the season-sensitivity and time-criticality, to a wide group of beneficiaries including the small scale farmers as well as representatives from IPs, existing extension service provide.