Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Program

The summary for the Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Program grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Thailand USAID Bangkok, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Program: The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is issuing this Notice of Intent to publish a Request for Applications (RFA) for one or more cooperative agreements for a development activity centered upon the "Afghanistan Water, Agriculture and Technology Transfer Program" (AWATT) in Afghanistan. Absent a convincing reason not to do so, USAID intends to request prime recipient applications only from Land-Grant Colleges and Universities (LGUs), applying in partnership with Afghan regional/provincial universities. LGUs have global experience with sustainable agriculture and natural resource management issues, and by their nature as institutions have up to date, readily deployable physical and intellectual resources, relevant to the AWATT program context. As a category of learning institutions, they are broadly accepted as respected partners among the Afghan regional and provincial university networks. In this regard, USAID has noted the fact that a number of LGUs have previously engaged in agriculture reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Drawing on the experience of LGUs in agriculture research and dissemination, the program will provide technical assistance to increase accessibility and adoption of new and improved technology in agriculture production and post harvest activities in Afghanistan. The program will also address issues on land security and efficiency in water management. Afghanistan rural economy is natural resources-based. As such, land security and water issues should be dealt with as they relate to sound management of natural resources.The program areas and activities to be covered by the program are as follows:A. Integrated Water Management - Afghanistan suffers from water shortages. Water scarcity is critical to achieving increased productivity in agriculture. There is a growing concern about inappropriate use of watersheds, aquifers and river basins. Human pressure, deforestation and depleted watersheds contribute to water supply problem, aggravated by the unregulated and wanton use of water for households, agriculture or industrial sectors (e.g. unregulated construction of water well without consideration as to locations relative to aquifer capacity). As population increases, agriculture production intensifies, and industries expand, water supply problem becomes more critical especially during drought periods. As the problem gets worse, the potential for conflicts between sectors and water uses between countries increases that could lead to internal insecurity. Water policies are necessary for efficient water use - appropriate incentives to water users, improved technology for water delivery, procedures for water allocations including water rights. This program will focus on water supply and demand related to agriculture activities through activities that will help achieve the following objectives:1. To identify the water issues and gaps and develop activities that will address the needs of the rural sector;2. To develop a clear water policy and strategic plan on appropriate water usage and rights with the notion that water is not a free good but is a scarce resource that has value. Users should be appropriately charged and those individuals and communities responsible for the recharge areas (e.g. watersheds) should be aptly compensated for water use; and3. To develop a mechanism for dialogues with countries with which Afghanistan shares common water sources.B. Technology Transfer - There is an immense challenge in rebuilding the Afghanistan agriculture sector. More than two decades of war and civil conflict have devastated the countrys agriculture sector and have isolated Afghans from accessing information on new and improved technologies - precluding them from the opportunity to adopt results from research aimed at increasing farm productivity. Increasing productivity per hectare of land rather than area expansion would be the more appropriate strategy to accelerated growth of the countrys rural economy. Afghanistan has limited arable land. According to statistics only 13% of the total 65 million hectares of land is arable of which about 40% is irrigated. Afghanistan is a dry and arid country and has been subject to seasonal droughts and flooding. Because of population pressure, lack of technical and managerial skills and sound policies, the countrys rangeland and forest resources (including wetlands) have been depleted. Afghanistans rural economy is resources based, hence the need to put in place mitigating measures to prevent further destruction of the resources and policies and action plans that would provide incentives for the population to protect and conserve the diversity of floral and fauna species in the countrys ecosystem. Aside from increased farm productivity, Afghanistan has to build the efficiency of post harvest and marketing activities for its agriculture produce to be globally competitive. It has comparative advantage for a number of high-value horticulture crops (fruits and nuts) but Afghans have been deprived of technological innovations to improve post harvest activities and gain easy access to marketing information. In addition to accessing information on and adoption of improved technologies in the production, processing and marketing of agriculture produce, there may be a need to do some applied researches and technology demonstrations that would respond to the needs of the Afghans considering the harsh environment that they have to contend with, and the current capability in the government ministries to undertake research and provide extension services. Moreover, there is the tendency for rural people to maintain the traditional ways of doing things which is not surprising because of their isolation from the outside world during years of conflict. The objectives of this component are:1. To determine and apply appropriate technologies that would increase the agriculture potential for areas that are subject to seasonal drought and high risk of land degradation, deforestation and loss of biodiversity;2. To set up a structure for an agriculture research system in Afghanistan to address the research needs of the country including a mechanism for effective dissemination of results to users and identification of funding sources; and 3. To strengthen linkages among private/public sector research activities and Afghanistan international research institutions. C. Policy - Sound policy environment is critical factor in the speedy recovery of the Afghanistan agriculture sector. Although there has been multi-donor technical assistance to introduce policy reforms, these are mostly macro-level polices. Micro-level sector policies have yet to be addressed. The program will provide technical assistance in determining and formulating the appropriate policies focusing on but not limited to insecurity in ownership of and access to available arable land and tenure for use of rangeland, forests and wetlands for individual or communal use. For example, common harvest from areas where there are significant biological and economic values (e.g. pistachio woodlands) is allowed. However, these areas are boundaries common to villages and provinces and accessed by various stakeholders with varied interests. The lack of policies on access to and use of these resources would have significant impact on the pace at which the recovery of the agriculture sector would be achieved. The AWATT program will be in support of USAID/Afghanistan FY 2005-2010 Strategic Objective 5 (SO5) "Thriving Economy Led by the Private Sector"; SO5 IR.4 "More efficient Agriculture Support Services (research and extension); and SO5 IR.5 "Enhanced Management of Natural Resources " (renewable). Following the shift of USAID assistance in FY 05 from humanitarian aid to long-term development activities, the Alternative Development and Agriculture Office (ADAG) has focused on: 1) capability building for public and private sectors to mobilize and initiate market-driven sub-sectors (high value horticulture crops, livestock and poultry); 2) economic governance through organized producers, processors and trade associations/organizations; and 3) accelerating the development of an agribusiness system through commercial agriculture and domestic and international market linkages. Activities are on-going to rehabilitate, protect and conserve the countrys rangeland, forest and wetlands where there are significant economic and biological values. All ADAG activities, to a large extent, are in collaboration with other USAID and non-USAID activities and government ministries. USAID intends to issue the Request for Applications (RFA) no later than July 2007. It anticipates funding of $10 to $20 million for a 3-year period of which about 60% will be earmarked for water related activities. Interested parties should monitor the www.grants.gov website for issuance of the RFA. Eligible organizations interested in participating in the AWATT program should submit an expression of interest via email to the Point of Contact below. The email expression of interest should have AWATT as the subject, and provide the name of the organization, contact name, and email address. USAID intends to compile a list of organizations expressing interest in response to this Notice, and will furnish the list to each interested party for facilitating partnership arrangements. This is not a request for questions or comments. However, comments dealing with the issue of implementing the program via the LGU community will be entertained. Questions will only be addressed during the RFA stage. The issuance and award of a cooperative agreement(s) will be based on the availability of funds and this announcement in no way obligates the USAID or the US Government to make any award. Point of Contact: [email protected]