02.2005 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Study on access of women to land and livestock ownership in study of rural villages in Badakhshan, Bamyan and Kabul Provinces ("Who owns the farm? Rural Women’s Access to Land and Livestock (Author: Jo Grace)") [#29311],  [ID 223]

Document(s): Open document

14.12.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Update on land ownership, land laws and policy as well as settlement of land dispute; case studies on Fallstudien zu Bamyan, Faryab and Badakshan ("Looking for Peace on the Pastures: Rural Land Relations in Afghanistan") [#27673],  [ID 224]

Document(s): Open document

28.11.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Report on a field study in Panjao, Bamyan: roles of women and men with regard to decision-making in the family and community: section on social networks and freedom to move ("Gender And Local Level Decision Making: Findings from a Case Study in Panjao") [#27672],  [ID 225]

Document(s): Open document

01.07.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Analysis of rural livelihood (livelihoods diversity, non-farm labour, labour migration, indebtness, gender, health, social protection, agriculture) ("Rethinking Rural Livelihoods in Afghanistan (Authors: Jo Grace and Adam Pain)") [#25387],  [ID 226]

Document(s): Synthesis Report
Executive Summary

06.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Land Relations in Faryab Province - a Field Study ("Land Relations in Faryab Province: Findings from a Field Study of 11 Villages (Author: Liz Alden Wily)") [#25389],  [ID 227]

Document(s): Open document

05.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Acricultural Policy and Afghan Livelihoods - a Critical Overview ("Out of Step? Agricultural Policy and Afghan Livelihoods (Author: Ian Christoplos)") [#25390],  [ID 228]

Document(s): Open document

05.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Land Tenure and Conflict in Badakhshan, 1978-2003 ("The Shiwa Pastures 1978-2003: Land Tenure Changes and Conflict in Northeastern Badakhshan (Author: Mervyn Patterson)") [#25392],  [ID 229]

Document(s): Open document

04.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Wheat Seed and Agricultural Programming in Afghanistan ("Wheat Seed and Agricultural Programming in Afghanistan: Its Potential to Impact on Livelihoods (Author: Alexia Coke)") [#25443],  [ID 230]

Document(s): Open document

03.2004 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Study on the access of women to land ownership and agricultural work in Faryab and Sar-e Pul ("Gender Roles in Agriculture: Case Studies from Five Villages in Northern Afghanistan (Author: Jo Grace)") [#25394],  [ID 231]

Document(s): Open document

03.2003 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Useable farmland ("Land Rights in Crisis: Restoring Tenure Security in Afghanistan (by Liz Alden Wily)") [#13567],  [ID 221]

"The physical setting in which land rights exist in Afghanistan needs brief account (see the tables and map in Appendix C for details).
1. While most of the rural population depends on arable agriculture, the amount of useable farmland is limited, comprising only 12 percent of the land area. Most of this is rain-fed in a country where highly localised patterns of rainfall may be as low as 100 mm a year. Irrigated agriculture is therefore extremely important to the rural economy, in the form of vineyards, orchards and cereal farms, and where wheat production is dominant. For many decades, arable land has been classified in accordance with its productivity, mainly for purposes of taxation(see Map of Afghanistan Land Classes and Table 2 in Appendix C).
2. The greater productive area in the country is pastureland, that covers 45 percent of the total land area. This supports an immense livestock population owned by both settled farmers and semi-nomadic and nomadic populations. Nomads ("Kuchis") number about 1.5 million people in a rural population estimated to be around 18 million. Kuchis traditionally possess the greater share of livestock, especially sheep and goats. They are believed to have lost up to 90 percent of these animals during the drought of 1998- 2000, in the form of distress sales (e.g., to purchase food). Livestock assets, overall, run at around 60 percent of pre-drought levels, but show signs of recovery. Even post-drought, around 70 percent of settled farmers possess cattle.
Nomads adopt varying degrees of mobility to maximise productivity. The resulting norms are different from those adopted by settled livestock farmers. Issues of control over pastureland and shifting official positions as to what constitutes pasture and how it should be owned or used will emerge as critical issues in this paper, particularly as they intersect with inter-ethnic land concerns. At present, conflict most visibly (and sometimes violently) erupts on summer pastures in the central Hazarajat zone of the country between the Pashtun Kuchi and settled farmers. This is a dispute steeped in history and freshly reactivated through Taliban manipulation."

Document(s): Open document

03.2003 - Source: Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit

Land Ownership - Characteristics ("Land Rights in Crisis: Restoring Tenure Security in Afghanistan (by Liz Alden Wily)") [#13567],  [ID 222]

"Data on rural land ownership is scanty, incomplete, out of date or structured in ways that are hard to compare. With such limitations in mind, the following observations on land ownership can be made:
While most of the rural population depends on arable agriculture, the amount of useable farmland is limited, comprising only 12 percent of the land area. Irrigated agriculture is extremely important to the rural economy, in the form of vineyards, and orchards and cereal farms. The greater productive area in the country is pastureland, which covers 45 percent of the total land area. This supports an immense livestock population owned by both settled farmers and semi-nomadic and nomadic populations. However, land tenure arrangements are least well developed in these areas and most subject to contention and even armed conflict.
Outright landlessness is a very real feature in Afghanistan. A significant body of people do not own farmland (the landless), or they own farms too small for survival (nearlandless), yet together they provide a highly significant part of production, as sharecroppers, workers or tenants. While it cannot be confirmed that landlessness or near landlessness is rising, the signs are that this is the case.
Though the range of holding sizes is narrower than many other states in the region, ownership is highly skewed. Minorities at the upper end have traditionally owned disproportionate areas of total land. One recent survey finds that 2.2 percent own 19 percent of the total land area in 2002.
Regional differences of land distribution are so strong that national farm size averages are meaningless. For example, while “most” own their land in the mountainous east and northeast, landlords, sharecroppers and labourers are most common in the southern fertile plains around Kandahar.
Land holding in Afghanistan is not a simple question of owning or not owning. The most striking aspect of rural Afghan tenure is the high degree of uncertainty in land ownership, primarily in the sharecropping sector and the closely intertwined element of land mortgaging. This involves a web of relationships in which it is difficult to distinguish creditors/debtors from owners/sharecroppers, or to know precisely who is the legal or accepted right-holder over the property."

Document(s): Open document