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Afghanistan Rural Business Support Project (RBSP), 2007-2010, Asia Development Bank funded project, $18,000,000 Agriculture is a way of life for 70% of Afghanistan's people and traditionally the largest and most important sector of the Afghan economy. Agricultural development must be market-driven in order to be sustainable. In Afghanistan, the agribusiness sub-sector, which includes agri-processors and traders, is an important key to driving the market demand for agricultural products and growth in the agriculture sector. While the agribusiness sub-sector has grown since 2003, its growth is only a small percentage of its potential. The outlook for agribusiness development in Afghanistan is dependent on eliminating or reducing some of the many constraints faced by the stakeholders in the agriculture value chain. Asia Development Bank is funding Roots of Peace to implement a project that will link farmers, agri-processors, and traders into profitable production, processing, and marketing industries. Beginning in November 2007, Roots of Peace, working in partnership with the Afghan Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock will lead a three-year project to establish four Rural Business Support Centers (RBSC) to promote agricultural activities (production, processing and trade), along with social programs supporting rural communities. The RBSC is intended to be an infrastructural hub, similar to an industrial park, acting as a magnet that attracts commercial activity, investment, educational and value-added services. The program will include construction of four centers to act as a catalyst for business development in four selected districts within Nangarhar, Bamiyan, Kandahar and Balkh provinces. Each RBSC will support and coordinate all components of the value-added chain, from infrastructure to production and marketing of the final products and is intended to remove barriers to the rural poor’s agriculture-based income generating efforts. We expect the RBSCs will benefit nearly 9,000 farm families annually through participation in new business opportunities, boosting family incomes by 40%. We anticipate that each RBSC will be well established and operating profitably at the end of the project when we will turn over the RBSCs to Afghan ownership and management.
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