by Abdul Haleem, Jawed Omid
KABUL, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- "The quality and quantity of my crops this year has been better than in the past, but unfortunately a lack of buyers here and across the borders means that some of my fruit and vegetables are left to spoil," Hajji Amanullah, a farmer from the northern Takhar province, complained.
At a stall showcasing a variety of apples and grapes at a government-sponsored three-day Agricultural Exhibition here to find new buyers and markets for his products, the farmer lamented that he had harvested more fruit but had earned less money than last year due to lack of buyers.
Afghan farmers at the agricultural fair, including women, have been displaying their products including handicrafts at more than 230 stalls to attract customers.
When asked why he has been unable to shift the requisite amount of produce to meet his quota, Amanullah explained to Xinhua that a poor communication system, pitiable connectivity between villages and cities and, above all, increasing tariffs and custom duty imposed by the Pakistani government on Afghan truckers, have negatively impacted the volume of fruit and vegetable exports to Pakistan.
"The main market for our fruits in the past was Pakistan but this year the Pakistani government has restricted measures for Afghan truckers to cross the border in the wake of brief exchanges of fire in June at Torkham, the border crossing point linking two countries," Amanullah said dejectedly.
Amanullah is just one of Afghanistan's population of 30 million people, 80 percent of whom rely on the agriculture and livestock industries to make a living.
Read the full story at Xinhua