ABSTRACT
Afghanistan stretches over a total area of 652,000 square kilometres bordering with China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The population was estimated at just over 25 million in 2006 with an annual growth rate of 2.03 per cent. Only 12 per cent (7.9 million hectares) of the land is arable and 4 per cent (2.6 million hectares) is irrigated. Rapid deforestation has reduced forest cover to only about 2 per cent of the land, which is under threat of being cleared. An additional 46 per cent of land is under permanent pasture and 39 per cent is mountainous. Geographically, about 75 per cent of the arable area is concentrated in three of the eight agricultural planning regions of the country – north, northeast and west. Of the total arable area, not more than half is actually cultivated annually, mainly because of a lack of water (FAO, 2005).
