Press Release

USAID awards five-year $150 million alternative development program to reduce poppy production and promote licit agriculture

Kabul, Afghanistan  | Thursday, May 14, 2009

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced the award of a five-year, $150 million cooperative agreement to promote sustainable growth of the licit agricultural economy in select poppy-producing areas of northern, eastern, and north-central Afghanistan.

The project, called IDEA-NEW, provides incentives for economic alternatives in the north, east, and north/central regions of the country.  It continues USAID’s alternative development efforts to promote legal productive agriculture, improve economic opportunities in rural areas, and reduce dependency on illicit opium production.  It will build on the successes and lessons learned from previous USAID alternative development programs. 

In the first year of the project, efforts will target poppy-prone districts in northern, eastern, and north-central Afghanistan.  In collaboration with national, provincial, and district level government offices, USAID will work to increase agricultural production, rural enterprise and related infrastructural development, access to financial services, and overall value-chain development and integration for key regional industries. 

Dr. Mohammad Aslamy will be the project’s Deputy Chief of Party.  Dr. Aslamy has tremendous experience in Afghanistan’s agricultural sector, most notably as Professor and Head of the Department of Crop Science, College of Agriculture, at Kabul University from 1976–1979.  Speaking on behalf of the program, Dr. Aslamy stated, “It is my firm belief that this project will stir economic development and intensify licit economic expansion, thereby bringing prosperity and stability to the country.”

The alternative development program brings together three partners with substantial experience in Afghanistan.  Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) will lead the project team and will build on its previous work in the country’s eastern region.  DAI is joined by Mercy Corps, focusing on the northeast, and ACDI/VOCA, focusing on several northwest and central provinces.