Children in Bamyan, Afghanistan © Beth Bolitho

After a good harvest in 2007 provided about 90% of the country's needs in its staple crop of wheat, there has been an alarming deterioration in food security in Afghanistan. Drought in the north combined with widespread poverty in rural areas has led to a significant shortfall for 2008. Imported wheat is expensive and difficult to obtain from Pakistan, the normal source for Afghanistan, so that the price of wheat has doubled in the space of 12 months. With average households now spending 75% of their income on food, there is real concern for the poorest families.

The UN issued an appeal for food-related aid in January 2008 to assist 2.6 million vulnerable people but has rapidly revised the number in need to 4.5 million, upping the appeal to $400 million in July. For a programme on this scale, the logistics of timely delivery of supplies to the beneficiaries will inevitably come under pressure.

Aid agencies such as Oxfam point to the tiny proportion of assistance directed towards agriculture and rural development, perhaps as little as $300 million out of a total of $15 billion since 2001. Reconstruction of the crumbling irrigation system, for example, would go a long way to restoring livelihoods and food security.

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