Christian Perenti’s book shines light on all different areas in the world where climate change is taking a hefty toll. One of these areas that stood out was the Afghanistan drought and famine. This book was made around 10 years ago, so the statistics have only gotten worse as the years have gone on. Today, 79% of homes say that they do not have enough water for their daily needs. Due to these drought conditions, there has been a major food shortage as well. Around 20 million people are food insecure, as well as 6 million people in famine-like conditions (UNICEF, 20 Nov 2022).
Now, why did this happen? Where did it start? And lastly, can you help?
The main root of the drought is the 2020 wave of La niña. This event changed water precipitation all over the world. This caused much more dry conditions for Afghanistan. Afghanistan has seen regular droughts on and off for years, yet never anything this long and intense. At the same time, the Taliban was also taking over which froze all assets of the country that were held in banks across the world(Chernov, 10 December, 2021). People have learned of ways to cope with the climate change that La niña has caused, but they can only do that for so long.
One of the largest problems with the drought is agriculture. Afghanistan is a country located in Central Asia, with lots of deserts and mountains covering the majority of the terrain. The majority of their drinking water comes from unprotected wells, rivers, and springs. 58% of Afghanistan's people are employed by agriculture, and 80% of people's lives depend directly on agriculture (FAO, 16 October 2022). This is going into year 3 of drought for this country. There has been a 70% decrease in precipitation during months that are traditionally more moist. This season is very crucial for crop production. With a large decrease in precipitation, means a lot more dry soil. Entail means that the soil has much more of a difficult time absorbing the water when it does eventually get it. With this happening all over the country, we see an increase in flash floods which also wipe out crops and wipe out the good layer of topsoil.
In 2018/2019, wheat production is down 28%, 48% of pastoralists report reduced livestock productivity and/or animal death, and 92% of farmers reported having insufficient or no seeds for the current planting season (FAO, 2018). One crop that has really saved Afghanistan in a way is Poppy. Poppy only needs ⅙ of the water that is needed for wheat. Because of the grain price surge in 2008, Poppy also earns more than wheat. In "Tropic of Chaos", Parenti states “Afghanistan produces some 90 percent of opium, and the opium economy is estimated to be about half the size of Afghanistan's GDP” This is a complete switch over from Wheat to Poppy. Farmers don't have much else that they are able to grow. Poppy makes it so you have exactly what you need, the right amount of water, the cheap seeds, people to buy your product, and make enough to have a profit. In April 2022, authorities banned all cultivation of opium poppy and all narcotics under strict new laws. Due to this, demand has gone up. Which means so have the prices of opium which can be produced by poppy. Income made by Afghan farmers from opium sales more than tripled, from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022(UN, 1 November 2022). The Taliban has put a 10% tax on all Poppy production. The people who grow it have no choice but to oblige due to how dangerous the Taliban can be. They also have no other options to support their families in certain situations.
With the FAO, other countries have been responding and trying to help. In 2018 they had received 15.5 million USD from multiple countries across the globe. They have also provided hundreds of thousands of emergency livestock to farmers. Today, we can see that Afghanistan is in crisis mode. This will only get worse as we see temperatures rise through the years. If larger first world countries don't do something to help the Global south soon, the ‘Armed Lifeboat’ will start to sink. We need to link arms. We have one world, we either drown in it or live long enough to see our grandkids play on this lovely Earth. It is up to us.
Sources:
https://reliefweb.int/disaster/dr-2021-000022-afg
https://www.fao.org/afghanistan/news/detail-events/en/c/1609139/#:~:text=Around%2070%20percent%20of%20Afghans,population%20is%20employed%20in%20Agriculture.
https://thediplomat.com/2021/12/afghanistan-shrivels-in-worst-drought-in-decades/
https://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/emergencies/docs/CA2268EN.pdf
Hey Elysa I liked your post a lot! I liked that you talked about the floods that occurred as a result of lack of rain and then sudden rain. I think a lot of people misunderstand how soil works and think that any rain is good rain. I also liked that you talked about the topsoil eroding due to the floods and how that was one of the leading causes of planting more poppy.
ReplyDeleteI like how you organized this overall. The statistics in the beginning were heartbreaking yet informative. Moving from there into the climate conditions into the agricultural issues flowed nicely. It is obvious the situation is dire there, but it is good to know that at least some global-north countries are sending aid.
ReplyDeleteHey Elysa! Great job on your blog post! I really liked the way you explained everything and explained the consequences of these events on the farmers. I think the position that the farmers are in is really sad. No one should be forced to subject themselves to the Taliban because it's the only way they can support their families. I also liked the call to action that you had at the end!
ReplyDeleteHi Elysa, I wrote about the impacts of climate change induced drought and opium on Afghanistan as well, so I enjoyed reading what you found on the subject. I liked how the beginning of the blog focused on the drought and was used to introduce why poppy is being grown so much in Afghanistan. I also liked how you touched on the Taliban's influence on the opium trade, which is an important aspect to the opium crisis occurring in Afghanistan.
ReplyDelete79% of homes don't have the water they need!! And large portions of the population facing famine. When "famine" is officially declared many children are already starving to death. I heard a report on NPR this morning about famine coming on in Pakistan as a result of the enormous floods they had this year - with famine in Afghanistan next door (from drought) the whole situation is dire.
ReplyDeleteI also touched a little bit on how drought has effected Afghanistan. I like how you used your statistics to really show the true impacts of the drought. The fact that 80% of people are directly reliant on Afghanistan's agricultural industry. With a massive drought, most of the residents of Afghanistan are in a terrible situation.
ReplyDeleteThis situation is a very intimidating and scary one once numbers really put it into perspective. Afghanistan has roughly a total population of 40 million, earlier in your post you noted that 20 million are food insecure. I can't believe half of the country experiences these hardships. Additionally, 79% of homes face water shortages. This becomes even a bigger problem when 80% of people rely directly on agriculture for their lives. I am glad that aid and resources are being sent their way to help. Because all these statistics are creating a chaotic, and troublesome situation as they compound off one another.
ReplyDeleteHi Elysa - I really liked how your post was organized! Going through why this happened, how it’s affecting the people and the land, and discussing what is being done now to combat the issue was a really great way to introduce and explain this huge issue in a short blog format. It is devastating that the farmers have no other choice but to grow poppies due to the mass drought they are experiencing - as well as economic manipulation. It’s truly an awful situation, the end of your post is certainly true; it is up to us.
ReplyDeleteHi Elysa, I really enjoyed how organized and put together your blog was, it made it very easy to read and follow. I liked how you asked questions to get the readers interested in what you might have to say next. I didn't realize that they rely mostly on unprotected wells, rivers, and springs for their drinking water. Afghanistan's agricultural sector employs 58% of the workforce.
ReplyDeleteHey Elysa
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to read how this affects the people of Afghanistan. I had no idea that the whole reason the poppy plants were grown in the first place, came down to drought taking out most of the wheat production and then snowballing into farmers looking to make ends meet. The amount of money they could make was too tempting.
Hi Elysa, thank you for sharing! My post was on something similar, so it was nice reading about the topic in a different perspective. It's crazy to me to think that precipitation rates have gone down by about 70%, and the fact that so many people depend on crops for their livelihoods. Climate change is having such a negative impact on those in Afghanistan, and there's not much they can do about it.
ReplyDelete