Starting benefit of Agricultural Product Management Project: 97 Onion Storage Facilities exploited in Kabul

Sunbola 3: August 24, 2020

The Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock has put into operation 97 Onion warehouses in Kabul province.

Construction of the reservoirs began, through the Corona-era crop Management Program nearly two months ago, in the Chahar- Asyab, Mosahe, Khake-jabar, Bagrami and Dehsabz districts.

Each of these Onion warehouses has a capacity of 12 Metric Tons, and 97 Warehouses have been built at a total cost of 47 Million 756 thousand 786 Afghanis.

Heshmatullah Ghafouri, Deputy Minister of Irrigation and Natural Resources of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock said, at the opening ceremony of two Onion Warehouses in Qala-e-Fatuh area of Kabul,

Currently, construction work on 11,000 agricultural projects in 34 provinces is underway, and some of these projects have been completed and some will be ready for operation in the near future.

Mr. Ghafouri added that with launching of new projects through the country's Crop Management program, some have criticized the construction work, which includes storing Onions, Potatoes, Raisins Houses and Zero-Energy Cold Storages for fresh fruit and distributing fruit and vegetable drying machines, will not be completed on time and before the harvest of crops and Horticulture but these projects are progressing well.

He said that, 97 Onion Stocks are being completed and put into operation in Kabul Today.

Heshmatullah Ghafouri added, that “About 11,000 projects are currently underway in 34 Provinces, under the auspices of the Government of Afghanistan under the Guidance of His Excellency the President, some of these projects are in the 20% and 40% stages, some of them are nearing completion and some have been completed.

About 1,100 more projects, in addition to 11,000, are underway through the Ministry of Agriculture's Horticulture Value Development Sector project (HVCDP) throughout Afghanistan, especially in seven provinces.

and a large number of these projects have been completed. »

However, the Ministry's Deputy for irrigation and Natural Resources added, that over the next two months, a total of more than 12,000 projects related to the construction of Onion, Potato, Raisin and cold storage facilities will be completed and exploited.

Meanwhile, residents of Qala-e-Fatuh area expressed satisfaction with launching of new Agricultural Projects, especially, the construction of six Onion warehouses in the area. but said they expected the Ministry of Agriculture to provide Agricultural water, improved Seeds, Modern Farming equipment and Loans to the Gardeners of this region.

Fakoor, a representative of the second part of Qala-e-Fatuh, said, at the opening ceremony of two Onion warehouses in the area that, there is a lot of Agricultural land in the area, but residents face problems with lack of Agricultural water, lack of access to improved seeds, lack of cold storage and other problems.

Taj Mohammad Khan, the lawyer for the passage of the second part of Qala-e-Fatuh said,at the ceremony that this was the first time that the Ministry of Agriculture had launched several Agricultural Projects in the area.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Daud the owner of an Onion Warehouse in Qala-e-Fatuh expressed satisfaction with the Ministry of Agriculture's decision, to build Onion Warehouses in the area, saying he had already disposed of most of his crops.

He said, there was no time to store onions and sell them at the right time, and most of his crops would spoil and he would throw them in the water.

Before, we did not have much hope for our onion crops, because they were sold cheaply and rotten said Mohammad Daud, who has planted 1.5 acres of land this year. But this year, when the warehouse is built for us, we hope to get more out of our product. The mentor farmer emphasized that previously he could not even get the price of Onion boogie from understanding the sale of his product.

Eid Mohammad, another farmer for whom an Onion warehouse has been set up by the Ministry of Agriculture says, they will be able now to market their produce at the right time and earn a good income.

He said that, the past we used to grow Onions and the product would not be sold at a reasonable price and we would keep it but it would rothe said, "But this year, when it is built for storage, we can get a good benefit from our Product.

EidMohammad, who has planted three acres of land this year with Onions stressed that in the past most of their crops would rot and be thrown into the sea.

Preventing the decay of crops and Horticulture, as well as creating job opportunities, is one of the important goals of the crop management program, With the construction of 97 Onion warehouses alone, the operation of which began today, 582 jobs were created during its construction. With the construction of each warehouse, three other people will have permanent job opportunities.