Much of Afghanistans livestock was removed from the country by early waves of refugees who fled to neighboring Pakistan and Iran. In 2001, the livestock population in Afghanistan had declined by about 40% since 1998. In 2002, this figure was estimated to have declined further to 60%. An FAO survey done in the northern regions in spring 2002 showed that in four provinces (Balkh Province, Jowzjan Province, Sar-e Pol Province, and Faryab Province), there was a loss of about 84% of cattle from 1997 to 2002 and around 80% of sheep and goat. The majority of Afghans traditionally raise sheep instead of goats because goat meat is not popular in Afghanistan. After 2002, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation & Livestock (Afghanistan) with assistance from USAID have been helping to regrow livestock numbers throughout the country. This was done by providing Afghan villagers training and animals to start with. The Council of Ministers (Afghanistan) Mohammad Asef Rahimi stated that over the past decade arable land had increased from 2.1 million hectares to 8.1 million hectares, wheat production from 5.1 million tonnes to 2.3 million tonnes, nurseries from 75,000 hectares to 119,000 hectares and grape production from 364,000 tonnes to 615,000 tonnes. Almond production jumped from 19,000 to 56,000 tonnes and cotton from 20,000 to 45,000 tonnes, with the saffron yield reaching 2,000 kilograms.. By how many tonnes did cotton production increase?