Ezmaray Siddiqi

Agribusiness and Local Economic Development in Afghanistan: a Perspective for Low Income and Subsistence Economies Ezmaray Siddiqi

Agriculture and Agribusiness is the world?s largest industry in terms of its contribution to the process of economic development, particularly in underdeveloped nations. Agriculture dominates the Afghan economy contributing to 50% of the total GDP. The need to improve agricultural productivity and access to the market is one of the pressing challenges that small-scale farmers in rural areas of Afghanistan are confronted with. There are several factors related to these pertinent issues that impede their ability to increase their income. Inadequate production and sharing of knowledge, limited participation in the market and poor design of innovations are among the most important obstacles contributing to low production. In this endeavor, agro-enterprise is an opportunity through which small-scale farmers can organize and strengthen themselves into collectives to increase their bargaining power in the market place and exploit values of economies of scale. Agro-enterprise entails practices leading to higher standard of living. However, this research attempts to provide and analyze the important components of agro-enterprise market-led initiatives and its contribution to local economic development in Afghanistan. The aim is to elaborate the catalytic role of NGOs in the formation of a suitable agro-enterprise platform for small-scale farmers in the context of developing countries.