US needs closer watch on Afghan farm aid

WASHINGTON |
Thu Oct 20, 2011 11:46pm IST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Embassy in Kabul needs to do a better job tracking aid to Afghanistan’s agriculture ministry, which totalled $77 million last year, a U.S. watchdog said in a report released on Thursday.

The audit by the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction said the embassy should do more to evaluate whether the U.S. aid is properly used and whether the strategy to invest in the agriculture ministry is working.

Between 65 percent and 80 percent of Afghans depend on farming for their income, so U.S. agencies have invested in the agriculture ministry to help rebuild the sector after the war, said Steven Trent, the acting Special Inspector General.

The watchdog, created by Congress to scrutinize U.S. aid to Afghanistan, has delivered several reports critical of what it has called the “confusing labyrinth” of U.S. spending in the country.

The U.S. Agriculture Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Department of Defense all have agriculture-related programs in the country, the audit said. It urged the embassy do more to coordinate efforts.

The United States has spent more than $1 billion between 2002 and 2010 on agriculture in Afghanistan, the report said.

The sector has been hurt by war, drought, and a lack of financing and supplies.

“The higher profit margins and wages that can be earned from cultivating poppies for illicit opium production can lure many farmers into activities that feed instability, support the insurgency, and undermine the government,” the report said.

In a letter included in the report, the U.S. Embassy said it agreed with the report and was working on the issues.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Xavier Briand)

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