Elhamuddin Safi

The Impact of Greenhouse Farming on Reducing Food Insecurity:

A Case Study of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan

Volume | 066 Bochum/Kabul | 2019 www.development-research.org | www.afghaneconomicsociety.org

The Impact of Greenhouse Farming on Reducing Food Insecurity:

A Case Study of Nangarhar Province, Afghanistan

Elhamuddin Safi

Key list: Greenhouse, Farming, Food Security, Agriculture

Abstract

Afghanistan is facing a large number of challenges, including climate change and natural

disasters, demographic shifts, limited job opportunities, inescapable gender inequalities,

and food insecurity. Food insecurity has increased from 33 percent in 2014 to 45 percent

in 2017 to encompass 13.2 million individuals in total, 3.4 million of which are severely

food insecure. Nangarhar is the most food-insecure province in Afghanistan: 84% of

households are food insecure, and 36% severely so. The Afghan government and its

international partners have promoted greenhouse farming to decrease this problem here;

so far, however, such farming’s actual effect has remained unclear.

This study is designed to analyze the impact of greenhouse farming on food insecurity in

Nanagarhar Province. With a team, of surveyors, we surveyed 275 greenhouse farms,

and used quantitative and qualitative analyses to better understand the status of

greenhouse farms. The results show that greenhouse farming could not fully solve the

problem of food insecurity. However, 34% of respondents always have access to safe

food, 23% of farmers became self-sufficient in their household food supply, and 18%

farmers no longer fear starvation after establishing their greenhouse farms. 172 of the

275 surveyed greenhouse farms’ owners sometimes suffered from a food shortage.

Similarly, 25% of the owners felt no change in the food availability as a result of

greenhouse farming.

Description of Data

We collected our primary data for this study with a structured questionnaire and interviews

of farmers. The questionnaires had structured open- and close-ended questions. We

used the open-ended questionnaires to collect qualitative data and the close-ended ones

for quantitative data. We developed the questionnaire items mainly based on the themes

in the literature review section and research objectives, as well as interviews with some

of the officers working in agricultural-support NGOs, FAO, German Agro - Action, CARD-

F, and others to increase the question’s accuracy.

The descriptive design was selected in this study because it would allow the researcher

to gather numerical and descriptive data to assess the relationship between the

mentioned variables. This made it possible for the researcher to produce statistical

information on the factors affecting the utilization of greenhouse farming on food security.

Research Question/Theoretical contextualization

In 1996, the World Food Summit defined food security as follows: "Food security exists

when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and

nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and

healthy life."

Based on a 2018 report of the Food Aid Foundation, around 795 million people worldwide

do not have sufficient food to lead a healthy active life (FAF, 2018). Food insecurity will

increase the risk of food crises in the future and it will be difficult to establish sustainable

economic development in a country suffering from such crises. One of the top options

experts recommend to reduce food insecurity is the construction of greenhouse farms,

which has in most cases proven helpful.

Many researchers have studied the issues of food insecurity and greenhouse farming,

producing varied results. Latimer et. al. (2002) conducted a greenhouse survey in Virginia

to discover the research and training development programmatic needs of greenhouse

workers. Latham (1997) found that the main cause of food insecurity in developing

countries was a lack of access to sufficient food because of low-level income and poverty.

The greenhouses provide vegetables for sales to the seed industry, which mainly grows

plugs. These include crops such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts,

radishes, beets, and chard. The farmers also grow a number of vegetables in the

greenhouses for sales in produce stands, farmers’ markets, and restaurants (Smith et al.,

2008).

Vleeschouwer (2001) views greenhouse farming as more flexible than regular farming,

especially when farmers have multiple separate buildings. For example, a farmer can set

up one building perfect for growing a tropical species and others for growing plants that

thrive in cooler climates. Each building can have perfect environmental controls to

maximize the growing potential of each species. Amiran Kenya (2013) found that the

greenhouse operation gives farmers the opportunity to offer consistent, year-round

employment to their workers, which keeps employee satisfaction and productivity high.

Afghanistan, which is strategically situated between Central and South Asia, with a

committed government, rich natural resources, and a young and diverse population, has

the potential to make significant progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.

However, a complex and protracted conflict combined with other challenges including

climate change and natural disasters, demographic shifts, limited job opportunities,

inescapable gender inequalities, food insecurity, and transparency concerns has

intensely constrained the country's wider development efforts.

According to the World Food Program (WFP) 2018, food insecurity in Afghanistan has

increased from 33 percent in 2014 to 45 percent in 2017, totaling 13.2 million individuals

(Afghanistan Living Conditions Survey, 2016-17), 3.4 million of which are severely food

insecure. Moreover, the number continued to rise in 2018. Physical security is a major

concern, and insurgent activity and military operations continue to affect food security in

some areas; in total, nearly 750,000 conflict-affected people required humanitarian food

assistance in 2016. Furthermore, both the rural and urban areas of Afghanistan are

exposed to risk and vulnerability to food insecurity. The rural population is more prone to

natural disasters, but the urban population experiences more financial shocks. Food

insecurity in Afghanistan is geographically widespread, but more prevalent in the rural

areas.

Nangarhar Province, the object of this study, is one of Afghanistan’s largest provinces. It

is located in the east and has an area of 7,727 km2 with a population of 1.63 million (CSO,

2018). According to the combined Food Consumption Score (FCS) and Coping Strategies

Index (CSI) 2016, Nangarhar is the most food insecure province in Afghanistan, with 84%

of households being food insecure and 36% severely so. In order to solve the problem of

food insecurity in Nangarhar Province, the Afghan government and its international

partners have promoted greenhouse farming by strongly investing in this sector; so far,

however, greenhouse farming’s effect remains unclear. By considering the high level of

food insecurity in Nangarhar and to generate useful insights for the government and other

stakeholders who are supporting agriculture and farmers, as well as to promote valuable

alternative source of food production and create employment for the farmers, this study

aims at answering the following important questions.

1. To what extent does the cost of greenhouse farming reduce food insecurity?

2. To what extent does the size of greenhouse farming influence food security?

3. How does knowledge of greenhouse farming influence food security?

4. How does diversification in greenhouse farming influence food security?

The null hypothesis under consideration is:

- H0: The greenhouse farms have a positive impact on food security

Field Research Design/ Methods of Data Analysis

The study’s survey was aimed at small- and large-scale farmers. Although the total

number of greenhouses is unknown, the list issued by NGOs in Nangarhar Province

includes 300 greenhouse farms in total. For the data collection, the surveyors targeted all

300 listed greenhouse farms, but unfortunately only 275 of them were active by late 2018;

the rest had shut down for various reasons. The data was collected from the nearest

secure districts of Nangarhar Province, such as Behsod, Kama, Sarkharod, Dara-e-noor,

and Khas Kunar. With the help of a pretested structured questionnaire, the survey team

interviewed the owners and operators of the greenhouse farms to have data on hand and

use the data in a binary regression to reach answers to the research questions.

As mentioned before, the study’s aim is to uncover the influence of greenhouse farming

on food security. Both theory and a literature review suggest that such farming has a

positive impact on food security, but the result can vary in different region and countries.

We were therefore searching to discover which factors have the strongest influence on

food security in the greenhouse industry. Therefore, the conceptual framework that

guides this study is constructed from four independent variables: the cost, knowledge,

diversification, and size of greenhouse farming. The government policies, climate, and

population are the intervening and moderating variables for the dependent variable food

security.

We conducted our impact analysis by utilizing an OLS regression function, as depicted

below:

FoSecu = α + β1cst + β2knlg+ β3diver+ β4size + ε…………. (i)

The function includes:

FoSecu = Food security (defined in accordance with the World Food Summit (1996))

Cst = Cost of greenhouse farming (structure, irrigation, chemicals...)

Knlg = Knowledge of greenhouse farming (farming management and marketing skills)

Diver = Diversification of greenhouse farming (types of crops during year)

Size = Size of greenhouse farming (greenhouse size, land size)

ε= Errors

Results

As discussed in the previous section, we planned to run the regression in order to see the

impact of costs, skills or knowledge of greenhouse farming, crop diversification, and land

size on food security as defined by the World Food Summit, but the result of the

regression proved unsatisfactory. As is noticeable in, an R2 of 0.136 means that the

mentioned variables only represent 13.6% of changes in food security, and of these

variables, only crop diversification is significant.

After considering the unsatisfactory result of the regression (a low R2 and insignificant

impact of variables), we focused on a qualitative analysis of the topic.

Description of the Targeted Greenhouse Farms’ Owners

Of the 275 farmers targeted in the study, only three were female and the remaining 272

were male. Furthermore, the farmers’ education level was low: 159 of them were unable

to read and write, and 33 of them

had only a primary-level

education. The remaining 83 had

secondary- (23), technical- (29),

and university-level education

(31).

The farmers’ ages also fell in

different categories: Of the total

275, only 123 were aged

between 28 to 37 years – the other 152 individuals were over 38 years old. Most of the

farmers were older than ideal and were unmotivated to learn the new technique of

greenhouse farming – a reluctance that would ultimately affect their farming method and

lead to negative results.

We asked different questions of these farmers with the above specifications, and

analyzed the answers step by step.

Availability of Food in the Household.

This study’s main objective was to see

the impact of greenhouse farming on

food security. Only 82 of the

greenhouse owners always had enough

to eat at home, and 172 answered that

while they did not always have enough

food, they believed that their

greenhouse had a positive effect on food

availability. Twenty-one farmers

sometimes or frequently lacked access to food. Furthermore, the farmers were asked

what effect greenhouse farming had had for them. Thirty-four percent of the respondents

answered that they now always had safe access to food; 23% reported becoming self-

sufficient in their household food supply, and 18% answered that they no longer lived in

82

172

20

10

50

100

150

200

Availability of food in the household

33

23

29

31

159

0 50 100 150 200

Primary

Secondary

Technical and Vocational

University

Uneducated

Education level

fear of starvation. Only 25% of the

respondents said that the

construction of the greenhouse

farm had had no effect on the food

availability of their household.

Construction and Cost of Greenhouse Farms.

In the survey, the farmers were asked who built the greenhouse farms. Among the 275

greenhouse farms in total, 158 were built by NGOs and the remaining 117 through the

farmer’s personal investment. The farmers were also asked about the cost of construction

and the growth of crop in the greenhouse farms.

The farmers interviewed gave the average cost of construction as about 5500 USD. The

highest amount an NGO spent was 6500 USD, while smallest greenhouse farm built by

a NGO cost 1500 USD.

In order to grow different crops in the greenhouse farms, the farmers had costs of

irrigation, chemical materials, and seed. While these costs are fairly standard, they are

high for an Afghan farmer, as annual greenhouse farm earnings start at 50,000 AFN,

which is equal to almost 670 USD, and go to more than 600,000 AFN, or 8000 USD. As

Calculation Construction Cost

USD Irrigation Cost

USD Chemical Cost

USD Seed Cost USD

Average Cost

5,598.18 1,561.82 1,536.36 1,554.55

Max 6,500.00 2,500.00 2,500.00 2,500.00

Min 1500.00 1,500.00 1,500.00 1,500.00

Self-sufficiency of food supply

23%

No fear of starvation

18%Availability of

adequate nutritious safe foods

34%

Don’t know25%

EFFECT OF GREENHOUSE FARMING IN THE HOUSEHOLD

the bar chart makes clear, 30%

of the farms have average

annual earnings of 70,000–

80,000 AFN from their

greenhouse farm, which is no

more than 1,500 USD.

The yearly incomes and costs

reveal that farmers are not

earning as much money as

expected; however, the numbers

provided by the farmers have been calculated without consideration of their daily use of

crops for household food. This means that farmers are using their greenhouse crops on

a daily basis for their household food and are selling the rest on near markets. The amount

given by the farmers is the net profit of selling crops on the market.

Target Market and Product

Farmers use three different channels to

sell their crops. The most common way

of selling greenhouse crop is to use the

local market. Seventy-four percent of

greenhouse owners were selling their

output on the local market. In some

cases, they were delivering their product

to the main cities to sell to urban

retailers. Some of the farmers also

mentioned that local traders were placing orders in advance, instructing them what to

grow, and then coming to pick up the crop directly. These traders then delivered the

product to other cities or even to other countries.

I have already mentioned in the introduction that almost 85% of the Afghan population is

employed in the agriculture sector, but farmers are mostly growing seasonal products.

Therefore, the greenhouse owners are in the majority of cases producing products that

.3

30.0

12.8

25.2

20.3

6.2

.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0

50000 – 60000

70000 – 80000

90000 – 100000

150000 – 200000

300000 – 500000

600000 – Above

Annual Net Income from Greenhouse Farms in AFN

Market formed by

greenhouse farmers

2%

Take to the local market and urban

market74%

Buyers are coming to

buy directly from the

field24%

Sale of Greenhouse Crops

become very expensive when out of season. We had five types of greenhouse owners in

Nangarhar Province: 53 of them were producing only tomatoes, 33 only vegetables, 12

only fruits, and 10 only flowers. However, the big surveyed greenhouse farms (167 in

total) were producing all the mentioned crops.

Training of the Greenhouse Farms’ Owners

Only 93 of the interviewed farmers had

received any official training related to the

use of a greenhouse farm. The remaining

182 had no such training and were copying

other farmers or using traditional way of

growing crops.

Since greenhouse farming is a new way of

growing crops for farmers, it seems logical

that the government or interested NGOs should train the farmers to enable them to use

their farms efficiently. The type of training the farmers received came from five sources

as attended seminars, trained by the greenhouse constructing company, trained by the

agricultural extension officers, acquired skills through NGOs and other farmers

The survey also included a question about farmer training programs, in order to gauge

the farmer’s capability to use the farm efficiently.

Have you received training?

Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent

Valid

Yes 93 32.1 33.8 33.8

No 182 62.8 66.2 100.0

Total 275 94.8 100.0

Total 290 100.0

53 33 12 10

167

0

50

100

150

200

Products

43.4% of the trained farmers were

trained by other farmers or greenhouse

owners, and 25.5% by the NGOs. In the

majority of cases, the NGOs helped the

farmers with the construction of their

greenhouse farms. Furthermore, some

of the farmers went to other cities to

attend seminars related to greenhouse

farming, and some of them were trained

by agricultural extension officers working to promote greenhouse farming in Nangarhar

Province.

Employment and Wages

Another important part which has been considered in the study is related to the

employment and level of wages in greenhouse farming of Nangarhar Province.

Only 815 workers in total were occupied with greenhouse farming, which is very low for

275 greenhouse farms. Most of the greenhouse owners (141) employed no more than

one or two people to work on their farms, and the highest number of workers hired was

ten. On average, the owners paid their farmers 8000 AFN per month. The highest wage

a farmer received was 15000 AFN, which is equal to 200 USD.

Discussion and Conclusion

In 1996, food insecurity was defined as follows: "Food security exists when all people, at

all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that

meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." A Food Aid

Foundation report published in 2018 found that around 795 million people worldwide do

not have enough food to lead a healthy, active life. Like other developing countries,

Afghanistan is facing a large number of challenges, including climate change and natural

disasters, demographic shifts, limited job opportunities, inescapable gender inequalities,

and food insecurity.

As we mentioned before that World Food Program (WFP) 2018 stated, food security in

Afghanistan increased from 33 percent in 2014 to 45 percent in 2017 to include 13.2

million individuals overall, of which 3.4 million are severely food insecure. Nangarhar is

the most food insecure province in Afghanistan: 84% of households are food insecure,

36% of them severely so. In order to solve the problem of food insecurity in Nangarhar

Province, the Afghan government and its international partners have promoted

greenhouse farming by strongly investing in this sector; so far, however, greenhouse

farming’s influence on food insecurity in the province has remained unclear. By

considering the high level of food insecurity in Nangarhar, this study has provided a deep

analysis of the sector. Its results show that the idea of greenhouse farming could not solve

the problem of food insecurity properly. Among the 275 surveyed greenhouse farms’

owners, 172 sometimes faced a lack of food. Similarly, 25% of the owners felt no change

in food availability as a result of greenhouse farming. However, 34% of the respondents

answered that their greenhouse farm gave them consistent access to safe food, 23%

answered that they became self-sufficient in their household food supply, and 18%

reported that they no longer feared starvation.

The sector has also not proven profitable: Most of the farmers were unsatisfied with their

earnings. In the majority of cases, the greenhouse farming project was implemented

without giving the owners enough information about how to use the farms efficiently.

Furthermore, the sector is not aiding employment numbers, because it incorporates a

smaller number of workers.

Overall, greenhouse farming has had a positive effect in the province, but it has not

matched the expectations of farmers and NGOs. In order to make greenhouse farming a

successful tool for removing food insecurity, the government along with private

stakeholders should first focus on training farmers, as most of them lacked any

professional training. Furthermore, the government should search for a specific market

for the most profitable product for farmers to focus on. In the majority of cases, the farmers

were uncertain what to grow on their farms.

References

Amiran Kenya (2013) “Green House Farming in Kenya”. Available at

www.amirankenya.com.

CSO (2018) Afghanistan Statistical Yearbook 2017-18. Kabul, Afghanistan: Central

Statistics Organization.

Hall, Samuel (2014) “A Study of Poverty, Food Security and Resilience in Afghan

Cities.” For DRC and pIN.

Latimer, J., Scoggins, H., Barden, V., and Lambur, M. (2002) “Needs Assessment

Survey of the Virginia Greenhouse Industry.” Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station

Information Series 02-1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

Blacksburg, Virginia.

Latham, M. (1997) Human Nutrition in the Developing World. Rome: FAO.

Smith P et al. (2008) “Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in Agriculture.” Philosophical

Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 363.

Vleeschouwer O. D (2001) Greenhouses and Conservatories. Paris: Flammarion.

World Food Assistance (2018) Preventing Food Crises 2018, p. 8. Available at

www.foodsec.org/docs/concepts_guide.pdf. (Accessed: 26 Sep. 2018).