Economic Analysis of Cereal, Vegetable and Grape Production Systems in Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture of Kabul, Afghanistan

Abstract

Little is known about the economics of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Kabul, Afghanistan. This study therefore aimed to investigate the profitability of 15 mixed cropping farms with a total of 42 farm plots that were selected from a survey of 100 households (HHs). The sample represented the three dominant farm types: cereal producers (15 plots), vegetable farmers (15 plots) and grape producers (12 plots). A cost-revenue analysis of all inputs and outputs (costs of tillage, seed where applicable, weeding, harvesting, casual labour, machinery use, pruning, pesticides and of revenue from produce sold) over two years showed major differences in net HH income. Differences were largely due to production type and crops grown and reflected differences in market prices for produce. Cereal production yielded a total bi-annual revenue of 9630 US$ ha −1 , and a gross margin and a net profit of 8770 US$ ha −1 . Vegetable farming gave an average bi-annual revenue of 27 900 US$ ha −1 , a gross margin of 26 330 US$ ha −1 and a net profit of 25 530 US$ ha −1 . Surprisingly, vineyards generated the lowest returns with a revenue of 5400 US$ ha −1 , and a gross margin and a net profit of 4480 US$ ha −1 . The results suggest that among the production systems studied vegetable cultivation was most profitable given its direct linkage to city market demands, rather stable prices and much shorter growing season than for cereals and grapes. In addition, the inflow of wheat and grapes from rural areas into the city negatively affects local producer revenues. If vineyards are to be maintained in the city surroundings, incentives such as subsidized credit may need to be made available to producers. I N T RO D U C T I O N

Global assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture: irrigated and rainfed croplands

“…Given these exclusions, we would estimate that the areas of urban croplands found in this analysis are fairly conservative and underestimate the actual area of urban and peri-urban crop production. Additional case studies of urban agriculture focusing on urban and peri-urban plots found higher proportions of vegetable production [33][34][35] than were found in the types of urban croplands captured in our analysis suggesting that this analysis may also be underestimating the extent of vegetable and fruit production in urban croplands.…”

Horizontal matter fluxes and leaching losses in urban and peri‐urban agriculture of Kabul, Afghanistan

“…During farmers' crop and fruit harvests, samples of about 300 g fresh weight of all extracted (marketed and dedicated to autoconsumption) plant parts and residues of vegetables, cereals, and grapes were taken from five points in the field, pooled, weighed, dried to constant weight at 60°C for 48 h, and weighed again for moisture-content correction. Subsamples of dried yield components (Safi et al, 2011) were ground with a mill (T-Tecator Cyclotec 1093, Höganäs, Sweden) to a size of 0.5 mm, and stored in sealed polyethylene bags until analysis of N, P, K, and organic C.…”

Urban agriculture: a global analysis of the space constraint to meet urban vegetable demand

“…What percentage of the existing urban area needs to be devoted to UA to meet the vegetable consumption of urban dwellers in different countries of the world? Although a significant number of people, especially in developing countries, produce staple crops through UA (Maxwell 1995, Safi et al 2011, Zezza and Tasciotti 2010, we restricted our study to vegetables for several reasons. First, comparing global annual harvested areas for vegetables and cereals to global urban area highlights the limited potential contribution of UA to global cereals production (table 1).…”

“…First, comparing global annual harvested areas for vegetables and cereals to global urban area highlights the limited potential contribution of UA to global cereals production (table 1). Second, studies suggest that, compared to staple crops, the production of high-yielding, high-value and perishable products like vegetables often represent the most profitable UA endeavor and constitute a substantial fraction of UA production in practice (Lee-Smith 2010, Safi et al 2011, Vagneron 2007). Finally, a key contribution of UA is in increasing the dietary diversity through the incorporation of vegetables into the diet to address food insecurity (Frison et al 2006, Welch and Graham 1999, Zezza and Tasciotti 2010.…”