As cost of food triples, community eats dried berries to survive

1 May 2008

The simple words of an Afghan child explain the pangs of hunger being felt across Asia, as high food prices strip the world’s poorest of enough to eat. Across the continent, families are cutting back on meals, children are being pulled from school to go to work, and the number of beggars on the streets of major cities from Kabul to Jakarta is climbing day by day.

In the Panshir valley in rural Afghanistan, farmers are struggling to cope with the double hit of high food prices and a devastating flood that destroyed the village's crops last year, leaving debris and boulders the size of small cars embedded in farmers' fields. Without a harvest, these families have nothing.

CARE's emergency response program provided tools, seeds and training to help the farmers clear their fields and plant again, and cash-for-work to give them enough money to buy food until the next harvest. But that was last year's plan; after the cost of wheat flour in Afghanistan tripled this year, even emergency assistance isn't enough.

An elderly man breaking rocks in a field stops to take a break, and pulls from his pocket a handful of pale brown blocks the colour and texture of dirty chalk. Dried mulberry paste is traditionally eaten here as an energy food or supplement during hard times, but this is what Haji Nasurullah's family is eating through much of the day now.

"We are eating less. We don't eat meat anymore," said Nasurullah, 75, with a simple shrug of his shoulders. "I borrowed money from the shopkeeper so I can buy food. God willing, I will find more work in other people’s fields. I hope that I will have a good crop this year."

It is still early in the crisis, and the impact is only starting to emerge. But the lasting long-term damage to people's ability to provide for themselves and their children will be devastating if help doesn't come soon.

More than 6.5 million Afghans – more than the population of Scotland and Northern Ireland – don't have enough to eat. During normal times, Afghans barely get by: any money they make goes to food, basic household items, and school supplies for their children. If the cost of one thing goes up, something has to give.

In Panshir, CARE's emergency program is focused on long-term solutions to food security, teaching the farmers how to use more productive seeds, and natural pesticides and fertilizer to increase their crop yield and protect their crops from infestation. But this year's harvest won't come for another three months. Until then, the people of Panshir valley will continue to eat the dried mulberries, and pray.

"We pray that our crops are good, that the floods don't come again, and that the prices of food go down. They must go down, Inshallah (God willing)," said Nasurullah.
"We cannot eat dried berries forever."