Expanded production of fruits, nuts, vegetables, food legumes, forages and feed grains can enhance farmer incomes in Afghanistan and support food, dairy, meat and hide industries. These alternative crops can create additional employment and market opportunities that the staple grain commodities are unable to provide.

Fruits and nuts hold considerable potential for improving the nutrition and incomes of farm households, and could provide an alternative to poppy cultivation. Efforts are underway through the Future Harvest Consortium to restore grape, fig, olive, pomegranate, almond, mulberry, apricot, peach, orange, lemon, and walnut cultivation.

Afghanistan's gene bank is being restored and local varieties are being evaluated. Afghanistan is the country of origin for over 60 varieties of almonds. There may be considerable value in protecting and developing these unique almond varieties for international markets.

Vegetable seed production at the six agricultural research stations rehabilitated by ICARDA and Future Harvest Consortium partners includes carrots, onions, turnips, tomatoes, and okra. The grain and legume crops at these stations include barley, new wheat varieties, faba bean, chickpea, and mung bean. Improved potato varieties and production practices being introduced by CIP are an important addition to the Afghan agricultural scene.

A new initiative is being launched to build partnerships all along the `market chain' for high-value export crops that fit Afghanistan's competitive advantages. The Western Afghanistan Agribusiness Program (WAAP), a joint effort of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), ICRISAT and CIAT, funded through USAID's Rehabilitation of the Agricultural Markets Program (RAMP), aims to help small farmers in Herat Province ease their poverty without having to resort to poppy cultivation. WAAP is initially focusing on saffron and cumin. In the first year, gains in economies of scale and collective marketing are projected to increase farm incomes by about 25%.