South Afghanistan Rangeland Rehabilitation

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South Afghanistan Rangeland Rehabilitation
Tom Blake, Kristina Toderich College of
Agriculture Montana State University Uzbekistan
Academy of Sciences
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Why Restore Rangelands in Afghanistan

• Like Montana, Afghanistans irrigated land is
  fully utilized
• Unlike Montana, Afghanistans population has
  doubled in the past 20 years
• Afghanistans livestock industry used to be half
  their rural economy (like Montana)
• Rangeland degradation is prevalent, seed banks
  have been destroyed. With reduced livestock
  populations, rehabilitation is possible

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What Should We Do?

• Some of the range isnt bad.
• Diversity has been lost over time, reducing
  resilience and responsiveness
• We should restore diversity, productivity to
  Southern Afghanistan Rangelands

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Statistics and Afghanistan

• What happens if we do the wrong thing on one
  Km2of Afghan desert? (Productivity drops from
  50kg/ha to 0 kg/ha, one species drops to 0
  species) (type 1 error)
• What happens if we fail to do the right thing on
  one Km2 of Afghan desert? (Productivity remains
  at 50kg/ha, one species remains) (type 2 error)
• What happens if we do the right thing on one Km2
  of Afghan desert? (Productivity increases from
  50kg/ha to 250kg/ha, diversity increases from one
  species to ten).

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Risks

• Human mismanagement may eliminate all benefits
  from revegetation
• Climate change may make our work irrelevant

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Maximizing our likelihood of doing the Right Thing

• Know as much as is humanly possible. Develop
  informative trials to identify the right species,
  genotypes for the conditions in which they will
  be expected to perform
• Stop desertification in its tracks.
• Retain and propagate the landraces that have
  survived in Registan.
• Get the Kuchis involved in creating the
  conditions for their cultural survival.

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Most of the Conditions for Success are in place

• A Rangeland Tree and shrub propagation center has
  been built by CADG at the Leshkar Gah Research
  Farm

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Shelter Belt Species are in Production
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Where Should We Plant Them?
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What will we do, learn?

• Current design 25 species, 15 grasses and
  forages, 10 shrubs and trees planted at 4
  locations with three replications per location.
  Split plots /- Phosphate.
• Train and educate Kuchi workers, pastoralists in
  rehabilitation, management
• Understand establishment, forage productivity,
  seed productivity, genotype x environment
  specificity.

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Who are our customers?
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What are our target environments?

• Initially, we will attempt to rehabilitate
  Northern Garmsir, Jandum and Taband.

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How Will We Do This?

• Area approximately 80,000 ha
• Sand Dune Stabilization by Shelter (Green) belt
• Reseeding with locally adapted grasses, legumes

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How do we find enough seed?

• We use the Tarnak Farm, near Kandahar
• Available seed production area 700ha
• Developable as Working Germplasm Bank, Genetic
  Diversity Repository for Southern Afghanistan
• Of personal interest to Governor Pashtun
• Of interest to USAID (verbal commitment of
  500,000 this year).

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How do we find enough plants?

• Develop seedling production systems in both
  Kandahar and Leshkar Gah
• Produce 600,000 hardened seedlings/saplings per
  year
• Transplant these to desert shelter/green belts,
  400km of shelter belt per year

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How do we get them planted?

• We train Kuchi to be environmental rehabilitation
  experts
• We train Kuchi to manage seed and seedling
  production systems in Leshkar Gah and Kandahar
• We train Kuchi to work with the donor community
  after we have gone

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Proposed Timeline

• 2004-2005 Perform desert evaluation trials at 4
  sites around Leshkar Gah and in Garmsir
• 2004-2005 Begin Large scale production of
  seedlings for shelter belt production
• Begin rehabilitation of Tarnak Farm
• Perform first germplasm collection in Registan

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Year 2

• 2005-2006 400km of shelter belts planted for
  dune stabilization
• 2005-2006 Seed Production initiated at Tarnak
  Farm from local and well-adapted regional forages
• 2006-2007 Begin Biodiversity reestablishment
  program with forage species, 200km2 per year

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Who will benefit, how much will it cost?

• Scalable, from 2 million per year
• Approximately 70 to Kuchi and MOAL salaries,
  about 30 to trainer salaries and equipment
• Primary benefit cultural survival, environmental
  productivity, sustainability
• Livestock production benefit Annually,
  Approximately 10,000/sq. km rehabilitated

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Who will benefit?

• Registan has unique germplasm resources. Once
  collected and characterized these will be used
  worldwide
• Afghanistan suffers a meat deficit. Sustainably
  improving national herd size will improve Afghan
  diets nationwide
• Winter grazing coupled with spring/summer
  irrigated forage use will generate a more
  reasonable lifestyle for Kuchi farmer/pastoralists
  .

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Thanks, and my grateful Acknowledgement of my use
of photos and data provided by Dr. Kristina
Toderich, Mr. Will Hall and the UNAMA supported
Registan Water/Pasture Assessment.