A number of farmers who attended the Farmers Day celebration in Kabul on Wednesday said they want to increase produce this year but called on government to provide them with more cold storage facilities, and processing and packaging centers. 

“We have problems in the packaging of our products. We sell seven kilograms of tomatoes for 50 or 100 Afs but when it goes to foreign countries, it is packaged and is sold for 200 to 300 Afs,” Mustafa, a farmer, said at the event.

“We need cold storage, we need chicken farms. They should help us,” Hayatullah, another farmer said on behalf of his co-workers.

Meanwhile, the agriculture minister Assadullah Zamir said they have built 19 irrigation networks from Salma Dam in order to irrigate agricultural land in provinces.

“19 networks have been built so far and work on 14 others is ongoing. We will cover 13,900 hectares of land through the project,” Zamir said at the event.

He added: “At least 440 tons of domestic grown rice will be sold every year. Also, 52 tons of apples will be sold every day instead of imported oranges and bananas if investments are increased in this respect.”

At the same event, deputy head of the defense ministry’s procurement office, Ghulam Sakhi, said: “I assure you that home grown rice will make up 60 percent of our two-year contract this year.”