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1. Unexploded Ordnance Threatens Food Security in Syria

Author:
The Carter Center
Publication Date:
09-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Carter Center
Abstract:
Unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination seriously hinders Syria’s recovery from civil war. The problem not only affects immediate physical safety but also undermines the nation's food security. Omnipresent UXO denies access to arable land, water sources, and infrastructure, exacerbating aid dependence. Additionally, UXO intensifies land degradation by contributing to the overcultivation of uncontaminated lands, leading to intensive farming practices that can degrade soil and deplete its nutrients. Overcultivation also depletes water resources and leads to soil erosion. All these factors further stress Syria’s already weakened food production capabilities.
Topic:
Food Security, Syrian War, Farming, and Unexploded Ordnance
Political Geography:
Middle East and Syria

2. Unfarmed Now, Uninhabited When? Agriculture and climate change in Iraq

Author:
Oxfam Publishing
Publication Date:
03-2022
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Small-scale farmers in Iraq are among the most affected groups in Iraq by climate change and water scarcity. With the reduction of rainfall and soaring temperature, agricultural production is dropping, and farmers’ ability to cope is hindered. Affected farmers are exhausted and feel that they are left alone in the face of crisis. Many farmers are leaving their lands and looking for better opportunities away from their land and the urban areas. Duty bearers need to mobilize resources and political well to support farmers and the agricultural sector through a national strategy with clear vision on the current needs and comprehensive forecast of the impacts of climate change. While agriculture is at the heart of Iraq’s past and present, its position in the country’s future is at risk.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Climate Change, Food, and Farming
Political Geography:
Iraq and Middle East

3. Mapping nomad-farmer conflict in Afghanistan

Author:
Antonio Giustozzi
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
In December 2016, the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU) launched a European Union-funded project, ‘A three-pronged research effort into essential areas of Natural Resource Management (NRM), Food Zone policy, ground water, and the shifting interests of stakeholders in the conflict opposing sedentary and nomad populations,’ that includes a component about nomad-farmer conflict. The project will unfold over a period of three years and is organised in stages. Project fieldwork involves a total of 16 case studies spread around Afghanistan, of which seven saw a first wave of fieldwork carried out during the first stage. It also includes interviews with government officials, community leaders and other conflict observers, both in Kabul and in the provinces. This brief summarises the preliminary findings of stage one, drawn from the seven case studies. Follow-up work will include not only nine more cases studies and the bulk of interviews with conflict observers, but also additional interviews in the seven case studies that feed into this preliminary briefing.
Topic:
Agriculture, Conflict, Rural, Farming, and Nomad
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

4. Financing Women Farmers: The need to Increase and Redirect Agriculture and Climate Adaptation Resources

Author:
Rebecca Pearl-Martinez
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Oxfam analysis finds that governments and donors are failing to provide women farmers with relevant and adequate support for farming and adapting to climate change. Oxfam conducted research on government and donor investments in Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania. It found that funding in these countries is significantly lower than commitments that have been made, and there is little evidence of resources and technical assistance reaching women farmers. Resources are being diverted to priorities other than smallholder farmers, and for the most part governments lack the capacity to deliver funding to them. This paper presents the findings along with recommendations for governments.
Topic:
Agriculture, Climate Change, Gender Issues, Women, and Farming
Political Geography:
Pakistan, Africa, Middle East, Philippines, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Ghana

5. Briefing Note on Fieldwork in Kandahar Province, December 2015 – January 2016: Opium Poppy and Rural Livelihoods

Author:
Paul Fishstein
Publication Date:
04-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This briefing note provides initial observations from fieldwork conducted between 14 December 2015 and 8 January 2016 in ten field sites within Arghandab, Panjwai, and Zharai Districts of Kandahar Province. In 2014/15, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC),farmers in Kandahar Province cultivated 21,020 hectare of opium poppy, the third largest area after Helmand and Farah, notwithstanding an estimated 38 percent decrease in cultivated area from 2013/14.
Topic:
Agriculture, Rural, Drugs, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

6. Moving with the Times: How Opium Poppy Cultivation has Adapted to the Changing Environment in Afghanistan

Author:
David Mansfield and Paul Fishstein
Publication Date:
06-2016
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This “watching brief” has described a number of trends with respect to agriculture, land settlement, and opium poppy in several areas of Afghanistan. It highlights two separate but highly related issues. First, what will be farmers’ response to changes in technology and agro-economic conditions? While cost-reducing technology such as solar-powered tubewells may allow the cultivation of crops with lower returns than that of opium poppy, will farmers choose to grow these crops or will they stay with poppy? Will they even look to cultivate a second crop of opium poppy in May as some reports from the field suggest? Second, while the new technology has allowed the expansion of agricultural production to former desert areas and supported livelihoods for marginalised households, given Afghanistan’s tenuous water resources (leaving aside climate change) and population growth rate, how sustainable is an agriculture that continues to deplete groundwater resources by allowing their use on an essentially “free” basis?
Topic:
Agriculture, Science and Technology, Water, Drugs, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

7. Briefing Note on Fieldwork in Balkh Province, May 2015 Opium Poppy and Rural Livelihoods

Author:
Paul Fishstein
Publication Date:
10-2015
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
The following notes describe very initial findings from fieldwork done in ten villages in Balkh Province’s Chimtal and Char Bolak Districts during the first two weeks of May 2015. Located west of Mazar-e Sharif, these areas have been counted among the relatively insecure areas of the province, where households have moved in and out of opium poppy cultivation since it was banned in earnest in 2007.
Topic:
Security, Drugs, Trade, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

8. Natural Resources Management, Farming Systems and Rural Livelihoods

Author:
Alan Roe
Publication Date:
11-2008
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
This paper synthesises the preliminary findings, conclusions and recommendations emerging from the first year of AREU’s study, “Applied Thematic Research into Water Management, Livestock and the Opium Economy” (abbreviated as WOL). It examines irrigation methods and water management systems, and draws linkages between water availability, livestock production and opium cultivation. Based on this analysis, the paper makes recommendations for the improvement of natural resource access, rural development and agricultural policy.
Topic:
Agriculture, Natural Resources, Rural, Management, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

9. Counter-Narcotics in Afghanistan: The Failure of Success?

Author:
David Mansfield and Adam Pain
Publication Date:
12-2008
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
The briefing paper argues that to truly understand what will create sustainable change in the Afghan opium industry, observers need to improve the tools being used to measure the success of counter-narcotics efforts. Measuring opium poppy-cultivated area serves as one of the few—and, in some cases, the only—means of gauging counter-narcotics success or failure. But relying on this indicator alone will not give policymakers an accurate sense of what drives opium poppy cultivation or what will sustainably reduce it. Until new indicators can inform counter-narcotic policy, perceptions of “failure” or “success” will likely continue to focus on short-term fixes rather than reach the root of the problem with long-term solutions. The paper concludes that a number of other indicators should be studied to improve policy concerning opium, including: incomes, physical security, food security, commodity markets and cropping system diversification. It also offers viable suggestions for ways to measure these markers of success or failure.
Topic:
Security, Drugs, Trade, Sustainability, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East

10. Evidence from the Field: Understanding Changing Levels of Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan

Author:
David Mansfield and Adam Pain
Publication Date:
11-2007
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU)
Abstract:
For many rural households the cultivation of opium poppy represents the key means by which they can achieve welfare under the conditions of pervasive risk and insecurity in Afghanistan. This briefing paper argues that understanding changing levels of opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan requires recognition of the multifunctional role of opium poppy cultivation in the livelihoods of rural Afghan households.
Topic:
Security, Agriculture, Rural, Drugs, and Farming
Political Geography:
Afghanistan and Middle East