Recounting the visit to the South-East region by Srikanta Misra, Country Director

I recently had the privilege of visiting Logar & Paktya provinces along with a team from our donor UNODC. The project is providing support to the farmers affected by opium cultivation ban to adopt alternate licit livelihood options. The project supported these farmers with Orchid support, high value intercropping support, vegetable gardening and SME supports. The farmers were supported with seeds, saplings fertilizers and tools for better farming. The farmers were also provided training on better farming practices through Farmer Field School (FFS) sessions. Similarly, others were provided with business development training and working capital grant to start their businesses. It was heartening for me to see how our support has enabled these farmers to adopt alternate high value livelihood options and move away from narcotics productions. The project has reached out to 675 farmers in Paktika & Paktya provinces. Going forward, the project will also support 625 rehabilitated drug users and their families to adopt various e generating activities in 3 provinces – Logar, Ghazni & Khost. In my conversations, the farmers appreciated the support provided to them and that has enhanced their resolve to move away from narcotics production. Definitely a big shout- out to the project team for their good work