March 2016—Two-wheel tractors are changing the landscape for Afghan farmers in more ways than one. They're changing the types of crops farmers grow, the cost to grow them, and the amount of income from crop sales and agricultural services.

Dost Mohammad, a farmer in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar, lacked the skills and knowledge to generate a sustainable income to support his family. Lack of irrigation water limited his opportunities in agriculture.

He was encouraged by one of his fellow villagers to cultivate poppy, but he declined. He was looking for a licit alternative livelihood to poppy.

In November 2014, USAID’s Kandahar Food Zone (KFZ) Program rehabilitated irrigation canals and provided vocational training to increase job opportunities, reduce poppy cultivation and provide sustainable licit income to the farmers in Panjwayi.

Mohammad was one of 150 farmers who attended vocational training in mechanical maintenance and received a set of tools. He was also trained on the use, maintenance and repair of two-wheel tractors so he could use a tractor to provide agricultural services for the Vineyard Rehabilitation and Inter-cropping Project under the KFZ Program.  Previously, Mohammad, like many farmers, used a traditional farming system with an ox and plow on his plot of land, but now he is extending his agricultural products by using a tractor.

“We were following our forefathers’ traditional farming method and never thought of this technique,” said Mohammad. “We had cultivated just to feed our family, but after using this technology, we plan to use our barren land and increase our products to supply the local market.”

A two-wheel tractor can use a full range of implements such as a cultivator, grain drill, reaper and trailer that help a farmer in all steps of the farming process. And a tractor is much cheaper to own and operate than an ox-drawn plow.

“These two-wheel tractors are replacing our traditional ox-drawn plow, increasing efficiency and mechanizing our farm production,” said Mohammad.

He hopes to increase his family income by plowing other farmers’ land and purchasing his own two-wheel tractor to serve his village and extend his business.

“After attending the mechanical and maintenance training, I purchased a four-wheel tractor, but after this training, I will buy a two-wheel tractor as well,” he said.

Four-wheel tractors are more appropriate for large fields and cannot work in small plots or vineyards, where two-wheel tractors are very effective. The two-wheelers can be used for intercropping in vineyards, where spaces are narrow. The cost to own and operate two-wheel tractors is much lower, with simpler repair and maintenance. 

Mohammad now operates an agricultural service company and clearly sees how two-wheel tractors are expanding business by catering to smaller land holders. He will now be able to provide agricultural services to vineyard operators that he could not provide with a four-wheel tractor.

He believes that this new technology will lead farmers to higher-value crops, and will help in promoting licit agricultural products in his village.

Kandahar Food Zone Program interventions are designed to strengthen and diversify legal rural livelihoods in targeted districts by identifying and addressing the root causes of instability that lead to opium poppy cultivation. More than 800 people have benefited from alternative livelihood activities of the three-year, $27.7 million program, which began in July 2013. The program has also rehabilitated over 168 kilometers of canals, affecting more than 200,000 people.

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