AFGHANISTAN
IIIINIIRIIIIIIII IiII II VIIII 3 ACKU 00000203 9
FO;SF/AFG/67/515
" Auguet1974
Projeot Working Document
RANGE MANAGEMENT AND ANIMAL
HUSBANDRY PRACTICES IN AFGHANISTAN
OF
DEMONSTRATION AND TRAINING IN FOREST AND
RANGE IMPROVEMENT PROJECT
by
O. N. ALPAY FAO Range Management Expert
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome,1974
PS /F2944
j - iii -
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During his assignment in Afghanistan, the Expert fully enjoyed throughout this'¢eriod all the generous hospitality and conscientious help of all Afghans met everywhere from the office in Kabul up to the shepherd cottage at Tchapadara peaks, which eased his workand increased the efficiency of his efforts. The Expert also wishes to express thanks for the cooperation of all the generous dedicated Afghans, who helped him during his assignment.
He also wishes to thank, especially Mr. M.A. Keshtyar, . he previous President of Forest Service, Mr. S.A. Anam, Forest ServicePresident and Cò- manager of the Project,` Mr. Genty, prior Project Manager, Mr. Turkoz,present eating Project Manager, Mr. Bostanoglu, Mr. Karabay and Mr. Nedialkov, the experts ofthe Project, and all. counterparts, for their assistance and cooperation.
The Expert likes also to express with thanks the generous help given byProfessor Fazli, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Mr. Hasanyar, Professor of RangeManagement in the Faculty of Agriculture, Mr. Olaf Anders, Professor of Botany in the Faculty ofScience, and Mr. Nizamettin, General Director of the Soil Laboratory and Research Division,Ministre of Agriculture and Irrigation. --
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 1
PART I: RANGE MANAGEMENT POLICY AND PRACTICE IN AFGHANISTAN 3
1. HISTORY OF RANGE MANAGEMENT 3
2. RANGE MANAGEMENT POLICY AND LEGISLATION 4
2.1 Range law 4 2.2 The text of the existing "Bill on Pasture Lands" 4 2.3 Comments on the Range law 4
3. IMPORTANCE OF RANGE LANDS FOR AFGHANISTAN 6
3.1 Surface of rangeland 6 3.2 Agricultural lands 7 3.3 Forest lands 7 3.4 Potential of Rangelands 7 3.5 Effect of Rangelands on animal husbandry 8 3.6 Other effects of Rangelands 9
4. RANGE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION 9
4.1 Proposed Range management service 9 4.2 The level of authority 10
4.3 Structure 10
4.3.1 Headquarters Organization 10 4.3.2 Provincial Organization 11
4.4 Staffing 11
4.4.1 Selection of the staff 11 4.4.2 Training 12
4.5 Need for foreign experts 12
5. INITIAL WORKING PROGRAMME 12
5.1 Survey of range.resources 12 5.2 Start some demonstration work 13 5.3 Start to establish a range plants herbarium 13 5.4 Start Range Plants introduction studies 13 5.5 Start studies to encourage the farmer to'grow forage on agricultural lands 13 5.6 Work on the establishment of cooperatives 13 5.7 Establishment of Range Allotments 13
OTHER RANGE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES 14
6.1 Water spreading 14 6.2 Growing Opuntia, Atriplex and other dry resistant brush species 15 I: 6.3 Using World Food Programme in range improvement programmes 15 - vi -
Page 6.4 Establishment of Range Research institutions 6.5 Range demarcation 15'` 16 6.6 Establishment of a Forage Analysis laboratory 17
PART IIs RANGE MANAGEMENT AND LIVESTOCK HUSBANDRY IN TCHAPADARA DEMONSTRATION FOREST IN KURAR REGION 19
1. THE AIM OF THE STUDY 19
2. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF TCHAPADARA 19 2.1 Location 19 2.2 Accessibility 20 2.3 Topography 20 2.4 Geology 20 2.5 Climate 20 2.6 Soil 21 2.6.1 Alluvialsand soils 21 2.6.2 Red soils 21 2.6.3 Brown Forest Soils 21 2.6.4 Podsolic soils 22 2.7 Vegetation 22 2.7.1 Artemisia brush 30 2.7.2Dwarf Chaparral vegetation 30 2.7.3 Indigofera brush 30 2.7.4 Evergreen Oak Forest 31 2.7.5 Coniferous forest 2.7.6 High mountain ranges 31 2.7.7Alpine pastures 31 32
3. SOCIO- ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 32 3.1 Population 34 3.2 Land Use Patterns 3.3 Agriculture '34 35 3.4 Animal husbandry 35 3.4.1 Poultry 135 3.4.2 Goats 3.4.3 Sheep '37 37 3.4.4 Cows and oxen 37 3.5Animal husbandry systems 37 3.6 Livestock feed 41 3.6.1 Cultivated forage 41 3.6.2 Forage production and use of natural grazinglands 42 3.6.2.1 Brush lands 42 3.6.2.2 Forest lands 43 3.6.2.3 Pasture lands 43 3.7 Balance between forage production and need 3.8,ß Animal production 44 44 - vii -
4. RANGE PLANTS SCREENING AND RANGE RESEEDING TRIALS 46 4.1 'Range plants screening trials 46 4.2 Range reseeding trials 46
5. MAIN CURRENT PROBLEMS OF THE REGION RELATED TO FOREST AND RANGE MANAGEMENT '49
5.1 Overcrowded human population 49 5.2 Suggested solution 49 5.3Shortage of employment 5o 5.4 Solution 5o 5.5 Overcrowded animal population 5o 5.6 'Solution 50 5.6.1 Reduction of the livestock number 51 5.6.2 Increase the productivity of animals through better animal husbandry practices 51 5.6.3 Solution 51 5.7Shortage of forage 52 5.8Solution 52 5.8.1 Increase the forage production on natural grazing land by implementing range improvement programmes and better management systems 52 5.8.2 Solution 52 5.8.3 Seeding Artemisia brush land into high producing species 52 5.8.4 Saving forage by better animal husbandry management 53 5.8.5 Solution 53 5.8.6 Establishing forage reserves and purchasing concentrate feed 53 5.8.7 Solution 53
6. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 53
PART III: TRAINING 55
1. SCHOOL YEAR 55
2. TEACHING 55
2.1 Class teaching 55 2.2 Practical field teaching 55
3. COUNTERPART TRAINING 56
4. OTHERS 57
5. PROPOSALS 57 - vi
Page
SUMMARY 59`
REFERENCES 63
Annex I BILL ON PASTURE LANDS 65
Annex II ANNUAL PRECIPITATION AND ITS DISTRIBUTION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR I N AFGHANI STAN 67
Annex III TCHAPADARA MAP -1 -
INTRODUCTION
The writer of this report is assigned by FAO as Range Management Expert to work in "Demonstration and Training in Forest and Range Improvement ", FO:SF /AFO/67/515 in Afghanistan. His work Commenced in January 8, 1972 and terminated in October 31, 1973. The original specific terms of reference of the assignment were :
1. To stuily the present animal husbandry system of the demonstration forest locatedsome 50 km west of Jalalabad, in the altitudes varying from 800 to 2000 m.
2. To propose and demonstrate, if so granted, improved methods in pasture management.
3. ' To deliver lectures on pasture management to the students of a middle, level forestry school.
However, these terms of reference were amended later by the proposition made by the
project manager as follows :
1. To study the current grazing methods and practices employed by the localpopulation when they are grazing their flocks in the demonstration area of the project.This area includes forest and grazing lands located between 800 m. - 5000 m. height, in the catchment of Tchapadara and possibly in Korangal valley whichare right bank tributaries of the Pech River.
2. To propose and demonstrate, if so granted, improved methods in pasturemanagement.
3. To deliver lectures on pasture management to the students ofa middle level forestry school. A 4. During winter time to help the Afghan Authorities to organize Range Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
To carry out his work, in accordance with these final terms of reference,the expert reviewed first the reports of the Range Management experts, who worked in Afghanistanprior to him.
During his assignment the expert had to spend the majority of his time,as all other experts of the project, in teaching.The whole field of Range Management is covered theoretically in the class and practically in the field, in the teachingprogramme.
Very frequent contact has been made with the personnel of the Range ManagementSection, during the teaching period, and required assistance and advioe was given toimprove the section and to prepare a working programme for the section.
As the location of teaching and demonstration area are 285 km far fromone another and a 142 km part of the connection road was not suitable even fora jeep drive most of the year, the work in the demonstration forest is restricted to the period ofJuly - October when the teaching is interrupted due to the summer holidays.
Nevertheless an overall survey of the demonstration area has been carried outand required data to accomplish the job were collected.
Two small demonstration areas are established on range reseeding in cooperation with watershed management expert.
This report reflects the views of the expert on the need for an effective Range Management, service, its ystructure and function.It also desoribes the physical and sooio- e'conomic conditions prevailing in Tchapadara demonstration area, the problemsrelated to the forest grazing and range improvement and management and imposeproposals on ways and 2
means for the solution of these problems.Furthermore it deals with the selection and training of the required personnel of both Range and Forest Management.
Kabul, October 1973. 3
PART I
RANGE MANAGEMENT POLICY AND PRACTICE IN AFGHANISTAN
HISTORY OF RANGE MANAGEMENT
According to the literature in the reach of experts direot studies on Range Management in Afghanistan were started by Mr. Semple (11) in 1954.He studied a range improvement programme in Northern Afghanistan.
Following Mr. Semple, Mr. Pabot (9) worked on improvement of natural rangelands of Afghanistan as an FAO expert from March 17, 1958 up to November 30, 1958. In his final report (9) Mr. Pabot made some useful recommendations for the improvement of range lands of the country. The recommendations of Mr. Pabot can be summarized as follows t
-to prevent the conversion of pasture lands into agricultural land; -to avoid overgrazing, by decreasing the number of livestock and improving grazing practices; - directing nomad herds to the proper range management by establishing animal shelter, developing watering places and by setting up veterinary services in relevant places; -taking necessary steps to protect the woody range vegetation from rooting up for fuel; -study the possibility of replacing goats by sheep especially by karakul sheep whose skin is used for fur; - set up a special state agency to deal with conservation and proper use of natural range lands.
Mr. Pabot had also prepared a work programme to study the most urgent range manage- ment problems.
The suggestions of Mr. Pabot were taken into consideration a little bit later by the Afghan Authorities and Mr. Tonchev was recruited as range management expert under the Bulgarian bilateral assistance programme, to deal with the subject.Mr. Tonohev worked in Afghanistan from 15 January 1965, up to 15 January 1969.
According to his report (12), Tonchev had studied the'range lands of Afghanistan by regions and led the establishment of a central range management service and some regional ,institutions to study the regional problems. In addition to this he started some range improvement programmes in different regions.
After his departure, with the exception of the central organization, the whole ,_programme was dropped, due to insufficient funds, equipment and personnel.-Even the range management service was given up in 1973.
.,, During his assignment the writer did his best to encourage the range management unit ,.,,,4t4,to keep up the programmes started by Mr. Tonchev, butthis could not be realized due to insufficient facilities.
At the present time there is only a range law in hand as a product of all range management activities in the past.
However, there are some indications that the young Republic will give necessary priority to this subject in its national development programmes, proportionate with the. 'part played by Range Land in the economy of the country. _4_
2. RANGE MANAGEMENT POLICY AND LEGISLATION
The relevant authorities have not yet decided on a concrete policy for the dèirelop- ment and management of range lands which cover 84.6 % of the country surface. The main reason for this is the lack of a government agency capable tai" make up such a policy, Therefore, it is very urgent to create a government agency, which would decide and parry out the policy required to get the highest sustained yield from the range resources. As is the cafe in other countries of the region, the range-,managèment "policy has to be based on conservation principles, because nearly all range lands of the country are in an advanced stage of deterioration.
2.1 Range law
Ínspiring from the reports of foreign experts a range law has been passed long before. Thus Afghanistan has managed to join the few countries of the Near East region which have a range law.
2.2 The text of the existing "Bill on Pasture Lands"
The-full text of the range law is given hereafter.
2.3 Comments on the range law
As it will be seen in the text, the law foresees that the government shotûd set up an efficient agency to deal with identification, formulation and implementation of range management programmes in the country. This article which will enable the implementation of the law as a whole could not be put into effect so far. This situation suspended the application of the whole law. In fact the range law that has been passed long ago and has a vital importance for the country is laid down in the files. It is clear that, in ordel' to render the law effective, in conserving and exploiting properly one of the largest natural resources of the country, to obtain highest sustained yield for the well being of the citizens and building up the national eoonomy, a capable range management service has to be set up very soon.
The construction, the function and the authority of this organization has been considered in part 1, paragraph 4.
In the article 3, all range landa are considered government property thus the customs and traditions are bound to be upset.Although these range use practices were not enough effective in conserving, improving and maintaining the natural grazing lands in the country, their elimination will only make the situation more serious. According to these traditions and customs certain range landa are being used by certain group of people, such as family, tribe or village.The others are respective of the rights of users and do not trespass these lands if there is not any dispute on the boundaries. .Although it is still heavy, this system of nue brings about some limitation in the grazing use of such lands.Furthermore as a limited number of people are using certain range laid, it will be more easy to get this limited number of people interested in range improvement and proper management through some measures such as eduoation, technical and financial aid. The examples in some countries prove this fact.
When this traditional pattern of use is eliminated by the law, all graziers will compete with each other for uncontrolled, destructive grazing, without paying any atten- tion to legal bans.
It is olear that this attitude will speed up the range deterioration.Besides that, when all the rangelands are deemed to be government owned land, the users will ,feel themselves free to take their animals to any part of the range, this practice will rgsult in too big uaer,groups on too large areas. This situation will alaoken the interest of range ueere to better range management practices, and will render the 5
implementation of range programmes too difficult.
The expert is of the opinion that the first step of a range management programme in Afghanistan is to invent and register this traditional pattern of range use as grazing unit, social groups using each unit and the livestock owned by the groups. The second step Should tend to reduce the area of the range unit, the number of people using the same area, and the livestock owned by these people, to an ideal Size, from the management point of view.
When these steps are realized, it is then easy to get the users interested in the proper use of their relevant range unit, and provide for their participation and cooperation in the range improvement and management programmes. The Hems, servitudes or range allotment systems of grazing use which proved to be successful in the proper range management are based on these principles.
It is therefore suggested that the range law should involve rules considering the realization of the above- mentioned stages in range management activities. Without developing this side of the subject, the bans included in the law could not be satis- factorily implemented.
The article 4 foresees the creation of a local commission to deal with the defini- tion and marking of the boundary of range.]ands. It is believed that the authority of this commission should cover the whole local problems mentioned above.
As to the range demarcation, the author does not agree with the ideas that range demarcation should be carried out by the range management unit, directly.
The reason for this will be discussed here.
Ih fact, the range management service will mark the boundary of the ranges through a range survey with a precision that is enough for preparing the range management and development programmes.
A detailed boundary demarcation or range oadastre is a matter that requires technical and legislative knowledge and experience different than professional range personnel would have.
If the range management service undertakes the range demarcation work, it has to establish a demarcation team and provide the required personnel, equipment and funds, in addition to its main needs; this will call for a too high appropriation olaim to be advocated. Besides that this work will overload this young servios which has not enough trained personnel to carry out its main programme. This situation will certainly bring about some delays and failures in the main work of the service.
Furthermore, the expensive equipment purohased for this work will be left over somewhere when this work is completed and this will result in waste of possibilities.
Demarcation of range lands is a cadastre work and there is a cadastre service to carry out this work in the country. This service has the necessary equipment and, above all, the trained personnel to do this job, if required funde are provided. There is no doubt that to get this work done by the cadastre service requires less expenditure and time than by the range management service, as it has already the required equipment and trained personnel.
This matter has been discussed with the authorities in the cadastre service. They are ready to accept this work. The only difficulty for them is to decide on the boundary .between agrioultural land and range land in the field.
This problem exista for the range service as well, when it undertakes such a programme. The solution to this problem is to demarcate private land instead of range -6
lands that are considered as government owned land.When all the private lands are demarcated, the areas standing outside of these boundariesare government owned lands and there is no need to demarcate them.There are many advantages in accepting this system.
When A survey team goes to an area to mark the boundary ofgovernment owned lands, the local people will raise some difficulties and possibly will notlet them work. If they sucoeed to survey and erect some signs on the boundary, thepeople will soon destroy these signs and make their work inefficient.But when this survey team wouldsurvey the private owned lands, they would welcome and give them thenecessary aid although they would try to include some government owned land into theirboundary and remove the signs into the neighbouring government owned land and keep themas if they were the signs of their own property.
This suggests that in the areas where private landsare surveyed there is no need for range demarcation; in the areas where the private landsare not surveyed, the range demarcation has not any practical value.
It can be advocated that if this work is done by therange management service it will be completed in a shorter period of time.But the expert observed some examples- proving the reverse of this idea.
Consequently it can be said that demarcation to be madethrough range survey is enough for technical range management studies.Legal range demarcation cannot be carried out by the range service, this work can be done bycadastra service. The areas having critical problems should be given high priorityin the cadastre programmes.
3. IMPORTANCE OF RANGE LANDS FOR AFGHANISTAN
According to Ingalls "Next in importance to the divineprofusion of water, light and air, those three great physioal facts which renderexistence possible, may be reckoned the universal beneficence of grass ".This is much more so for Afghanistan, than any other part of the world, because theenvironmental conditions pall for the
use of 85% of its land as grass land ;
3.1 Surface of range land
The total area of the country and its breakdown into differentland usais listed in table 1. As it will be observed on this table the totalarea of the country is 64.74 million hectares. Out of this area 2.9 million hectares (4.48%)is
Table 1 s Land Use Patterns in Afghanistan (1,7)
Agricultural Land Range &
Irrigated Non Total Pasture Forest Others Total Irrigated lands lands ha.
Area -ha. 2.900000 4.900000 7.800000 54.700000 1.940000 30000 64.7400000
Percentage 4.48 7.57 12.05 84.49 3.00 0.46 100
Irrigated agricultural land 4.9 million hectares (7.57 %) non irrigated agricultural land, 1.94 million heotares (3.00%) forest land, 0.3 millionhectares (0.46%) other lands and 54.7 million hectares (84.49%) range and pasturelands. 7
3.2 Agricultural lands
It is known that Afghanistan is located in the arid belt of the world. Countrÿ_., wide annual mean precipitation (Annex II) is an indication to this fact. The mean precipitation of the country is 325.4 mm when the records of two stations located at northern and southern Salang, which are normally high, are excluded this mean goes down to 274.2 mm. The areas that get less precipitation than 400 mm are defined as arid regions. In arid regions annual precipitation is not enough to support a sustained production of any agricultural crop, without irrigation, especially in Afghanistan where the temperature during the growing season is rather high.
Some examples of this fact had been observed by the Expert in Paktia Province,in 1973 during harvesting season. Although the growing season in 1973 has received precipitation more than usual, the wheat production on vast unirrigated flat lands was not high enough even to return the seed.
As it has been noted in table 1, the total arable land in the country is .7.8 million hectares. It is known that this figure includes some marginal lands that are not suitable for agriculture.Furthermore 2.9 million hectares of this land is under irrigated agriculture. It is possible that the surface of irrigated lands can be increased by the longterm irrigation programmes, but this will never be exceeding the area of total agricultural land existing at the present time, as these lands already include some marginal lands.Therefore, the total agricultural land has to be restricted in future to this 7.8 million hectares, as it is not possible to extend the boundary of agrioultural land at the expense of the areas that are considered range land at the present time due to prevailing natural conditions.
3.3 Forest lands
The natural forests cover 1.94 million hectares. The possibility of increasing this figure at the expense of range lands by afforestation practices on unirrigated lands seem to be. very difficult and uneconomical if it is not impossible.
It is scientifically known that tree growth consumes and needs more water than agricultural crops and range vegetation.
1 According to some authorities dry resistant timber stands can only grow, under natural conditions, on the lands that reoeive over 500 mm. annual precipitation (4). The areas getting less than 500 mm rainfall, can only suppòrt the chaparrals or other herbaceous type of vegetation that has not any value from economic point of view.It is also known that there are some exceptions to this general rule. In fact few species can grow in the regions getting less rainfall.But these species are not expected to produce a satisfactory yield under the dry conditions prevailing in Afghanistan. This fact suggests that the productive forest area in Afghanistan could not be expanded far beyond the boundaries of existing degraded forest lands. In other words the expansion of forest areas at the expense of range lands by afforestations is not expected to be economically feasible. The studies of Nedialkov (6).indicate the fact.
However this statement does never imply that there is no place for afforestation in Afghanistan. In fact there are vast flat areas in some valleys. In spite of the irrigation possibilities the rough gravels covering the surface of these lands and frequent floods render this area unfavourable for other agricultural crops.These types of lands have a high promising potential for fast growing tree species.
3.4 Potential of Range Lands
The area covered by range vegetation in Afghanistan is 54.7 million hectares. This makes up 84.5% of the total area of the country.Due to prevailing ecological Conditions it is not possible to convert these lands either into agricultural land or - 8 -
forest land. This means that these lands have to be used in future as rangeland in order to get maximum sustained yield without giving any damageto the resouroe itself and its protective and productive potential
,Effect of range.]ands on animal husbandry 3.5 As the main use of range lands is to produce animal food it has aconsiderable influence on animal husbandry and production. On account of this fact the economy óf Afghanistan is based by far on animal raising and has to be so in future as84.5% of the land in the country can only be evaluated through animal grazing.
The animal population of the country is given in table 2.
Table 2 : The kind and number of livestock in Afghanistan according to Ashworth (1)
The kind Number
Mutton sheep 15,000,000 Karakul sheep 6,500,000 Goats 3,200,000 Cattle 3,700,000 Camels 300,000 Horses 450,000 Donkeys 1,300,000 Poultry 6,000,000
As the forage crop cultivation is not common in the country the livestock population has to depend mainly on natural rangelands for their feeding. According to Ashworth (1), the natural grazing lands of the country have the potential of growing enough forage for the productive animals, but as these lands are not getting necessary care for their management, their yield is less than theirpotential and too short for proper feeding of existing livestock population. On account of malnutrition serious livestock losses amounting to 20 - 40% (50 - 100 million US$) occur annually in normal times. These figures go up to 100% in drought years. According to Ashworth (1) malnutrition is a serious animal disease in Afghanistan where there is no medical treatment to cure it but only providing the animals with sufficient forage would be the answer. It is a clear reality that malnutrition affects seriously every aspect of livestook production both in quality and quantity and decrease the total income from animals considerably. As the animals depend mainly for their feeding on natural rangelands, it is certain that any animal husbandry development programme cannot be successful unless effective range improvement and management programmes are-accomphished.
According to available information livestock products contributed approximately 38% of total export earnings of the country for the period 1969 - 1970 (1). Moreover the animal products seem to be the main raw material that the future industrial develop- ment of the country could soundly be based on.
This reality clears out the importance of animal husbandry in the economy of the country and consequently the importance of proper use of rangelands on which the animals have to depend for their living and production. 9
3.6 Other effects of rangelands and their use
The rangelands are generally stretohed on the slopes of the hills and mountainht When their vegetative cover is destroyed through mismanagement, they lose their potential of-infiltrating the rain water into the soil. This rain water runs off over the surface of rangelands, where the vegetation is eliminated by unwise grazing, with an ever increasing amount and velocity. This process results in the loss of water which is highly required by the plants for their growth and production and eventually decreases - forage production capacity of the rangelands.
Furthermore, the running water erodes the fertile top -soil of the land and carries off. This process renders the range land completely unproductive and also brings about detrimental floods and silt deposits on productive agricultural lands, on populated centres and on roads.
It is a reality that following every rain storm some parts of agricultural lands or populated centres are being damaged by floods, someroads are blocked by deposits or washed off by torrents and traffic is interrupted for several days. The financial aspect of these damages amounts to milliards of Afs.
Therefore the effects of unwise use of vast rangelands not only result in serious animal loss, but they also bring about the exhaustion of the range resource itself through the process of erosion and render serious damages to the cultivated lands, to the populated centres and to communication systems.
The picture drawn with the main lines reflects the fact- that conservation, develop- ment and proper use of the rangelands that cover a considerable part of the country surface and has the only potential of producing animal feed, has to be managed properly in order to''attain the highest benefit to the greatest number of the.population and still avoid the evils caused by misuse and deterioration of these lands. This goal can only be aohieved by an effective range management programme formulated and imple- mented by a capable government agency.
It is proposed that the relevant authorities should take this fact into considera- tion and take necessary steps to establish an effective range management service equipped with required personnel and facilities to overcome the existing and coming up problems in the field of range management.
4. RANOE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION
At the present time there is no functioning of the Range Management Service. The organization that had been founded before in 1965 has been given up in 1973. Although the staff who mere working in this service before are still employed there, but they are not dealing at all with any range problem. However they were not active before as they were lacking a working programme and as it has been referred to before they have not been able to keep up the programmes that were started byforeign experts. This situation of the range management service is due to the lack of authority and experience rather than a lack of funds and facilities. On account of the reasons already mentioned, the country cannot do without a government agency which will deal with the improvement and management of range lands that cover 85% of the surface of the country.
4.1 Proposed Range Management Service
All foreign Range Management experts worked in Afghanistan had unanimously proposed the establishment of a Range Management Service, to deal with the decision of range 'policy, to formulate and implement range improvement and management programmes. There - 10-
is no doubt that range management service is the base for all range activities and without this service nothing can be done in this field.
4.2` The level of authority
The Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation is made up from several autonomous agencies which are called presidencies, such as Presidency of Administration, Animal Husbandry, Agricultural Extension, Forest, Planning, Plant Protection, Research, Irrigation. Each presidency is divided into general directorates. General directorates have no autonomous status and are a part of the presidencies.
The range management service was started as a general directorate in Forest Presidency. The practice and experience has been exercised for about ten years and has proved the fact that this status is not efficient and should be changed when the Range Management Service is reorganized.
Considering the high proportion of range lands amongst other natural resources, their part in producing animal feed, and their function conserving the water and eliminating disastrous evils of soil erosion and floods, it isproposed that the level of authority of the Range Management Service should be as high as the other autonomous agencies of the Ministry. This status will grant the required initiative to the head of Range Management Service to make direct contact with other Presidents to coordinate and integrate his working programmes to fit in over all policy and working programme of the Ministry and to get in touch with the Minister to advocate his programmes and requirements.
As it was experienced before a less authorized Range Management Service has no chance of accomplishing its functions.
4.3 Struáture
It is olear that the structure of the service should fit in to the work that it has to carry out. The expert is in full agreement with the proposals of prior Range Management experts that the following range management programmes should be accomplished at the first stage.
An overall survey of the range resources, sets up grazing allotments, prepares the grazing plans, studies the type and composition of the main range vegetation. By ecological regions, it investigates the potential and grazing requirements of these types, to carry out programmes dealing with range plants introduction and range reseeding; encourage fodder crop cultivation on agricultural lands; train the graziers; carry government services to them; train the Range Management personnel; carry out some research and demonstration work and start some range development programmes such as development of watering places, constructing animal shelters, water spreading, soil and water oonservation activities, work on establishment of cooperatives in the field of marketing and concentrate feed suppling.
The expert is of the opinion that in order to accomplish these funotions'the following struoture is required s
4.3.1 Headquarters Organization :
As it is already discussed the Headquarters Unit should be a range management presidency, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and should be headed by a President, having a post just under Minister and Assistant Minister. The Presidency
should break into following sections :
i. Survey and Planning `.f I ii. Range Ecology iii. Range Agronomy iv. Extension Education and Research v. Engineering vi. Finance and Administration.
Furthermore a consulting board should exist at Headquarters, formed by the Chiefs of Sections and representatives of other Presidencies. This board will meet at certain times and review the working programmes of the service and'` -give advice to President to decide the range policies to identify and formulate the range development programmes fitting in the overall working programme of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation and integrating this working programme.
4.3.2 Provincial Organization :
In the provinces a range supervisor post and enough range technicians posts,are essential. Range technicians will be under the range supervisor and the range supervisor will be under the General Director of Agriculture. He may be directly under the President as well.
4.4 StaffinE
This is the most difficult part of the programme, as there are not enough trained and experienced personnel in the field of range management. The internal facilities to train professional range management personnel are not sufficient.Although some range management courses are being offered in the Faculty of Agriculture, this is not enough for professional level training.
however, staffing problem has to be overcome atany rate. At the present time the only possible way out to this end is to recruit the required personnel seleoting them amongst the experiences graduates of the Faculty of Agriculture and graduates of High School or Agricultural School, and providing them with further training in service and academic institution.
Headquarters Sections must be staffed with two persons eaoh; one section chief and an assistant.
In provinces filling the range supervisor post has to be postponed until required professional level personnel are available. A000rding to the size of work enough range technicians should be recruited.
4.4.1 Selection of the staff :
The experience gained so far suggests that personnel grown up in the cities are not willing to go and work in remote areas and under difficult oonditions that are common in all range management programmes. Therefore, it is a compulsion that all personnel to be employed in range management programmes should be selected among rural youths who have required qualifications and accustomed to working in remote areas and under difficult conditions.
In accordance to this main principle, at the beginning the Headquarters staff should be selected among the rural youths who are graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture and having some experience in general agronomy.
The range technicians should be recruited among the rural youths who are graduated from local High Schools or Agricultural Schools. - 12 -
4.4.2 Training
It is true that this recruited staff would have no enough experience and training to carry out the required working programmes and they would needsome training. As the range management unit has to be operative as soon as it,has been established, those personnel have to be on the job and cannot be sent to any institutions for training. Therefore some capable personnel (experts) are needed to assist those personnelin their work and train them by preparing special courses, seminars and by working withthem.
The range technicians should receive a 4 -5 months practical training beforethey start actual work and the ones who are successful in this course should havethe right to continue the work.
The section chiefs should get the necessary training. and experienceby working with experienced personnel.
At the time being, the high level of professional personnel, required toexpend the service, have to be trained in foreign countries which have thesefacilities and their natural conditions are similar to those in Afghanistan. Therefore a fellowship programme has to be prepared to meet this need.The candidates to be sent abroad for training should be selected among experienced successful technicians. This system will encourage the technicians to have interest in their work with success and devotionand will provide experienced high level personnel capable to workin all conditions.
Furthermore considering the importance of the subject, steps shouldbe taken to expend the range management courses in the Faculty of Agriculture,to be sufficient to train professional level range management personnel.
4.5 Need for foreign experts
As it has been referred above some experts are required for bothassisting the personnel to carry out their work in a right way and train thepersonnel who have no sufficient training and experience on the subject.This programme calls for the assistance of a Range Ecologist, a Range Agronomist andan Engineer having experience on animal water development, construction shelters and water spreading. At the present time it is indispensable that these experts should be providedfrom abroad.
Therefore necessary programmes should be prepared to provide theseexperts either through bilateral or international aids. In order to make the newly establishedrange management service fully self operative, five years assistance of theseforeign experts is required.
5. INITIAL WORKING PROGRAMM
The Range improvement and management is a new field of work forAfghanistan and perhaps there are lots of work to be done, but all of these cannot be undertakenat once. They should be put into an order aocording to their priority and mustbe fitted into the national development programmes according to their priorityorder and to the capacity of the range management service.
5.1 Survey of range resources
Deciding a sound national range management polioy, identifying therange development problems,and weighing their priority and even deciding a national animalhusbandry policy has to be based on the information to be provided by the overallsurvey of range resources of the country. Therefore range survey should be the first job to beunder- taken by the range management service. - 13 -
It is expected that this work would not take too long if the eoo,logical studies, being oonduoted by Mr. Paul Lalande, under French bilateral aid programme, can concluded very soon.However, it is possible to accomplish this survey within four years, without using the conclusion work of Mr. Lalande,provided that the organization has properly been set up, and the required equipment, funds and otherfacilities are available in time.
It should be mentioned that without foreign experts' help this programme cannot be put into effect.
Through this inventory the following works should be accomplished :
(a)- Grazing lands should be divided into grazing allotments.. These allotments should be marked on maps and all other information should be collected according to allotments.
(b) Main vegetation, their location and extent, grazing potentials, improvement and management requirements.
(o) Water resources, their location, condition and capacity.
(d) The kind, number and size of the flocks and their seasonal movements.
(e) The main problems and requirements of livestock owners.
This information should be marked on 1/50000 maps.
5.2 Start some demonstration work to show advent es of .ro.er use of natural range lands
5.3 Start to establish a rane lants herbarium
5.4 Start Range Plants introduction studies
5.5 Start studies to encourage the farmer to grow forage on agricultural lands
5.6 Work on the establishment of cooeratives for marketin: animal .roduots and for providing supplemental feed.
All these activities can be started as soon as possible separate from range survey, to provide some information in addition to the data collected through survey useful for further planning of the range development programmes.
5.7 Establishment of Range Allotments
One of the measures of altering the destructive free grazing to conservative planned grazing is the establishment of grazing allotments. This is an old system employed to control the grazing on some land especially on forest lands. in some countries it is called "Hemma" in others "servitudes" and still others, "grazing allotments ", no matter whatever they are called the principle is the same, that is to allocate the grazing of ' a certain area to a certain person or a group of persons,with some conditions, in an official way so that everybody should know and respect it. The effectiveness of the system depends on the selfish attitude of human beings. If any person is sure that he will alone enjoy all advantages of proper use and suffer the disadvantages of unwise use, of a certain area, it is certainly surethat he will afford to apply ways and means that will increase his benefits. The only thing to be done is to convince this person /to the advantages of proper use. -14-
Grazing allotment is recently developed in U.S.A. to control the grazing on federal owned lands and achieved some good results. It is expected that'adoption of this system ;to Afghanistan would be effeotive in controlling the grazing on vast range lands.
It is nécessary that the base of the system should be considered during range survey. The areas which ere traditionally being used by certain people should be marked on the map and the kind and number of animals owned by the persons should be noted inorder to establish a written record for their rights. In the case where vast areas are being used by too many people and crowded flocks without any accustomed order, the areas should be divided in the field to smaller units based on discernible boundaries. Later, the persons eligible to use each allotment, should be determined by discussing with local people and getting their agreement. Another alternative for preparing the allot- ments is to ask from local people to prepare the allotments by themselves and give them necessary help to do this. After this has been finalized, it must be marked on the map and users should be noted down.
Although it would impose some difficulty to start, it will ease all range improve- ment and management programmes. After establishment of the allotments, the government instead of undertaking directly the range improvement programme, can give the necessary technical and financial help to the graziers and let them carry out the necessary improve- ment programmes by themselves.
In order to make this system of use successful, it is important that complaints about trespassers and boundary disagreements should get quick and justified response of the government. fa
6. OTHER RANGE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES a Following the accomplishment of range survey the collected information must be evaluated. It is surely expected that many looal problems will be identified at the end of this procedure.All of them should be fitted either into short term or long term programmes according to their nature and importance. But there are some common problems that apply almost everywhere and are entitled to get high priority. Some
of them are explained below s
6.1 Water spreading
As it is known, water spreading is the praotice of diverting the rain water from its drainage, conveying it to the range area and spread over the range by employing a special technique.
There are many examples everywhere indicating that the productivity of the range in both quality and quantity can considerably be increased through this praotice, especially when it is cómbined with reseeding and fertilizing.
In Afghanistan, topographical structure of the land, rain fall and stream flow regimes and some work done by the German technical assistance4ágricultural group in Paktia Province let the expert reach the conclusion that water spreading when properly applied offer a high potential in increasing range productivity in the country. a
In fact there are vast flat or gently slopped areas at the foot of high mountains. These areas are producing very little if any today on account of dry conditions.On the other hand,, although the country is dry in Summer, as a whole, it is common that even in the driest period high mountains get frequent rain storms that bring about considerab],e high flows in ephemeral streams for several hours.The expert observed this fact several times during his trips. It looks like it would not be too difficult - 15-
and expensive to carry out this water to the dry flat areas'and spread over these.lands by employing relevant technique.
It is sure that one flooding or two in dry season will change the existing poor ephemeral vegetation of these lands into high production perennial pasture vegetation.
6.2 Growing Opuntia, Atriplex and other dry resistant brush species
As it has been reported by Le Houéro u from Somalia (8), acombinationof opuntia '' and 'atriplex species performs a good diet for animals and they have the potential of growing in rather dry regions and can produce considerable forage.
In Afghanistan there are extensive areas where prevailing dry conditions are limiting the growth of productive palatable forage plants. It is expected that these species can successfully be grown on such lands.Therefore it is worthwhile to try these species on such lands existing everywhere in Afghanistan.
6.3 Using World Food Programme (WFP) in range improvement programmes
It is common that every range improvement calls for the reduction in the number of animals grazing on the range. In many oases the difficulty of providing forage to the animals to be taken off from the range is the main handicap, in implementing of range improvement programmes. It is necessary that the forage required for these animals should be grown somewhere else.
In Cyprus and Syria, World Food Programme is successfully being used to encourage forage production on agricultural lands. This practice is a practical alternative to provide necessary forage to the animals that are over the limitjof the carrying capacity of the range lands.
It is sure that this programme can be adopted in Afghanistan and produce the same
results. The advantages of such a practice to Afghanistan will be multiple t it will increase the financial capacity of the government in implementing range improvement programmes, it will result in the reduction of the heavy animal losses caused by malnutrition and it will render range improvement programmes possible by providing forage to the animals that are overcrowded on the ranges, and possibly provide financial support to establish cooperatives useful for animal husbandry development and range improvement.
6.4 Establishment of range research institutions
As it is the case for all fields, research provides the required material that development programmes can be based on. Therefore range improvement practices have to go hand in hand with'tange research studies. It is obvious that research programmes require qualified personnel, expensive institution and equipment that cannot be provided very soon. But it is necessary that required programmes should be undertaken for the establishment of desired range researoh institutions in the near future.Location and size of these institutions can be best decided according to the results of survey.
However a central' unit is necessary for supervising and coordinating the programmes to be carried out in the, regional institution. This central unit might be fit either in range management or in research presidency of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. The first alternative sounds better to the expert.
At the beginning some simple experimental projects can be started by local techni- cians, in the regions that are planned to be the headquarters of future research institu- tions. In time before these project areas should be developped into research institutions according to a programme, as the personnel and other facilities become available. - 16 -
6.5 Range demarcation
First of all the expert would not agree with the ideas that the range managemetitY unit should carry out directly the range demarcation programmes. The reason for this will be discussed here.
The range management service will mark the boundary of the ranges through range survey with a precision that is enough for preparing the range management and develop- ment programmes.
A detailed boundary demarcation is a matter that requires technical and legislative knowledge and experience different than professional range personnel would have.
If range management service undertakes the range demarcation work, it has to establish a demarcation team and provide required personnel, equipment and funds, in addition to its main needs, and will call for too high an appropriation claim to be advocated. Besides that this work will overload this young service which has not enough trained personnel to carry out its main programme.This situation will certainly bring about some delays and failure in the main work of the service.
Furthermore the expensive equipment purchased for this work will be left over in somewhere when this work is completed and this will result in the waste of possibilities.
Demarcations of range lands is a cadastre and there is a cadastre service in the country. This service has the necessary equipment and above all trained personnel to do this job if required funds are provided. There is no doubt that to get this work done by cadastre service requires less expenditure than it is dona by range management service as it has already required equipment and trained personnel.
This matter has been discussed with the authorities in cadastre service. They are ready to accept this work. The only difficulty for them is to determine the boundary
between agricultural land and range.land in the field. t
This problem exists for the range service as well, when it undertakes such a programme. The solution to this problem is to demark private land instead of range lands that are considered as government owned land.When all the private lands are demarcated, the areas standing outside of these boundaries are government owned lands and there is no need to demaroate them. There are many advantages of,aooepting this system.
When a survey team goes to an area to mark the boundary of government owned lands, the local people will raise some difficulties and possibly will not let them to work, if they succeed to survey and erect some signs on the boundary the people will destroy these signs very soon and render the work inefficient. But when this survey team would survey the private owned lands, they would welcome and give necessary aid to them although they would try, to include some government owned land into their boundary and possibly will remove the signs into the neighbouring government owned land, but would keep these signs as they are the signs of their own property.
This suggests that in the areas where private lands are surveyed there is no need for range demarcation; in the areas where the private lands are not surveyed the range demarcation has any practical value.
It can be advocated that if this work is done by the range management service it will be possible to complete it in a shorter period of time. But the expert observed some examples proving the reverse of this idea.
As conclusion it can be said that demarcation to be made through range survey is enough for'technical range management studies. Legal range demarcation cannot be carried out by range service. This work can be done by cadastre service.' The areas -17-
having critical problems should be given high priority amongcadastre programmes,
6.6 Establishment of a forage analysis laboratory
There is not any doubt that for sound range management practices aswell as for preparing effective animal feeding rations the forage value of theavailable plant species has to be known.
It is a little bit surprising that at the present time it isimpossible to get determined the forage value of any plant in the country.The expert tried all alter- natives without any success to get determined the foragevalue of some plants which are growing in his working area andproducing considerable herbage.
It is out of question for a country like Afghanistan, whose natural forageplants are not fully explored and the economy ofthe country is considerably supported by the products of animals that depend, for their feeding on to these naturalplant species which their forage value is not known, that a foragelaboratory is an urgent need.
Therefore, neoessary action should be taken to establish a forage analysis laboratory either in the research presidency or Range Management presidency(that is expected to be established) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. - 19 -
PART II
RANGE MANAGEMENT AND LIVESTOCK HUSBANDRY IN TCHAPADARA LEMONSTRATION FORESTIN 1CUNAR REGION
1. , THE AIM OF THE STUDY
As it has been defined in the original project document, the aim ofthe studyis to promote more effective use of land for forestry and pasture bymeans of a demonstration ,,pro gramme and training in Eastern KUnar region.
Today it is known that forest grazing is detrimental forforest and impeding the forest development programmes and advanced forestry practiceswhen it is not controlled.
On the other hand the use of forest lands for the grazing of domesticanimals goes as far back as the dawn of mankind.
Being so old and providing a wide spread population with theirsubsistence it is quite impossible to eliminate this practice by imposinga series of bans through forest laws and regulations, and in many cases itmay not be desirable.
As it is known all unwise and uncontrolled activitiesof the man on forest land render some serious damages in some way or another. This applies to forest grazing as well. If it is praotised in an unwise and uncontrolledmanner it brings about serious damages to the forest; when it is employed undera plan and adjusted with, conditions and requirement of forest trees and soil, thegrazing damage stays in compensation limits and does not raise any danger,.for the futureof the forest.
In 'fact the modern forest policies have a tendenoy ofadopting multiple use objectives that foresees the use of forests to provide wood,water, wildlife, forage and recreation. According to these principles, under some oircumstanoes,forest grazing is being included to forest management plans asa forest product, provided that it is applied in accordance with appropriate management plans.
As in all other countries the natural forests of Afghanistanhave been damaged seriously by uncontrolled cutting, grazing and clearing forcultivation. Serious consequences of this practice have come up everywhere.
Taking this into account the Government of Afghanistanhas undertaken some pro- grammes with the aid of the United Nations to employ appropriate techniques tostop detrimental activities in forest areas, to compensate thedamage rendered before and their ill effects. To achieve this, Tohapadara catchment is selectedto demonstrate advanced forestry techniques and train Afghan personnel tooarry out such programmes, in all forest lands of the country.
In this framework the expert carried out thenecessary studies to collent required information to prepare proposals effective for developmentand proper use of range resources of the area.
2. PHYSICAL CONDITIONS OF TCHAPADARA
2.1 Location
.'Tchapadara demonstration area stretches in Tohapadara catchment,which is one of the right battik tributaries' of Pech river. It is located in Dinar Province, Nangalam district and Kandey subdistrict. Kandey is one of the largest villages layingon the -20-
Northern edge of the catchment, where Tohapadara stream joins the Pech river. This area is North -East to Kabul, the main town of Afghanistan; and North-West to Chagasaray (Asadabad) the main town of Kunar province. It lies between..34° 47''37" - 34° 521 =21" North latitude and 70° 45' 41" - 70° 49' 20" East longitudes, A map is attached (Annex
It shows the location of Tchapadara area in Kunar province.
2.2 Accessibility
To travel from Kabul to Mashora, a village on the nearest edge of Tchapadara, 288 km drive is desired. Although this road stretches some 6-7 km more into Tchapadara catchment, it has not been possible so far to maintain this part good to drive. There- fore, 'after Mashora one has to walk throughout the catchment.
The road between Mashora and Chagasaray is 55 km long.
It is a rough road and sometimes is closed on account of deposits, high river flow or a washed off part. It take three hours through a normal drive.
From Chagasaray to Jalalabad it is 90 km all season earth road, it takes three hours through a normal drive.
143 km part lying between Jalalabad and Kabul is a surfaced high quality highway.
2.3 Topography
Tchapadara is a catchment surrounded by high and sharp ridges, and ragged by deep narrow Valleys. The slopes stretching along the valleys are rather steep and rooky. The lowest part is Kandey village (1200 m.) in the North, and highest peak is Sharoole (4080 m.) in the West.In general the area is exposed to the North. The steep slopes extending at both sides of the main stream leaves a narrow rather flat stripat the bottom of the valley. Middle part of this strip is deposited with rocks and gravel and cannot be used for any purpose. At both sides of this rocky strip exists some flat lands with deep, rich, alluvial soils.These areas are terraced and being used for irrigated agriculture.
2.4 Geology
Geological structure of the catchment displays three different formations. Northern part on both sides of the main stream up to Tchambarak and Wersek valleys is madeup by marmorised lime stone. In this formation there is a "Lapis" mine on the slopes of Tchambarak valley. Middle part is composed of cristaline formations such as Biotite,
' Biotite- Hornblende, Quarts-Diorites, Diorites -Gabro and Gabro -Norris.In the South and higher parts Phillites and Phillite like sheets are còmmon.
2.5 Climate
No looal olimatical reoords are available to define the climatical charaoteristios of the area. However through observing the existing vegetation one can reach to the conclusion that all types of olimates varying from subtropical to sub- boreal are prevailing in the area.
In the lower part Calotropis prooera R. Br. witnesses to the existence ofa sub- tropical climate, while at the high elevation, Juniperus communie L. SITnana Byrne. and Juriierus squamata Buch -Ham indicate to prevalence of a boreal climate. In the muddle up to 1800 m Punioa granatum L., Ficus palmata Forsek. Diospyrus lotus L.prove the existenoe of a mild,humid climate. The area is in the monsoon rainfall regime and - 21 -
receives considerable rainfall in June, July and August. The period between April - June is rather dry. The whole area gets snowfall in winter. But snhw cover doeaRnot last long in the areas lower than 1500 m; in 1972 the first snowfall occurredon 19 September on the areas over 3000 m. and it name down in November up to 2200m.
2.6 Soil
The soil of the regions varies, by depth, and other physical and chemical charac- teristics according to geological formation and topographical structure. The main soils types arec
2.6.1 Alluvial sand soils:
These soils types make up the narrow bottom land at both sides of the stream. It is composed of fine sand; soil profile is not developed. These areas are deep fertile agricultural lands.
2.6.2 Red soils:
This soil type exists on marmorized limestones. It is rich in clay, which is not making up an even layer on main rock, restricted on depressed smallareas and to the crevisses of the limestone and is very shallow.
2.6.3 Brown forest soils:
This soil type performs a thin layer which is frequently rugged by outcrop of Diorite and Phyllite formations. It is covered either with brush or high forest stands. The areas that carry brush or evergreen oak stand, are poor of humus, theareas covered with coniferous forest have a row humus layer.
Table 3 : Chemical Composition of Tohapadara Range Soils (X) - Location ''leva 7opth. PH '>C;'_10-3Orga-CaCC Avail ^xc1.-Total 3 i of tio 1:2;5mho/cm nie able n geable i ';ample in ato P m. cm. carbon I. N water250 ; Pm. rPm. ç: .
Tortar+ 3^CC 0-15 (.25 0.33 0.35 37.0 55 C.2C2 N.zstur 3250 0-15. 5. : 0.57 1.27 r:.97 67.0 65 0.290
Sharoole _3775 0-15 ';.7 0.35 0.7 2.9 /1.6 255 0.223
; Nurampish 3400 0-15 6.5 0.24 1.36 1.34 71.6 70 0,308
! Tipola 3300 0-15 6.0 0.30 1.72 1.46 74;0 160 04432
i Awarabznd:3350 0-15 5.6 1.15 0.93 1.53 58.4 100 0.226
i
l nag 2100 0--15 6.7 0.29 0.17 1.82 79.0 105 0.06
1. Salt conoentration is not high to limit plant growth 2. Soil reaction is weak acid 3. Organic matter content is normal 4. Phosphor anc Potash content is low (X) Analysis have been made by the soil laboratory of! ,-the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation. -22-
2.6.4 Podsolio soils:
This type of soil is developed on phyllite formation in alpine region above the tree zone. They are making a thin layer on horizontal phyllite formations. The reaction and cheminai composition of these soils are given in table 3.
2.7 Vegetation
Vegetation displays rather a big variation in both plant species and structure of plant communities. The identified species that are collected from demonstration area are given in table 5. The distribution of plant communities is marked on a map (Annex III), the area covered by each community is shown on table 4 by Forest exploita- tion series.
Table 4 : Area of Land use pattern and natural vegetation types by forest exploitation series in Tchapadara catchment
Type of Land a r e a -. ec t a r e s r'eries Series feries ^eries feries Total 1 Tz TrT IV V
Agricultural land 51.7 119.4 ^3.2 /47.0 141.8 1:60.0 Artemisi -- brush 77.2 34.0 - - - 112.0 Dw.rf c'aparral 193.5 1 70 .0 _ _ - 363.5 Tndigofora brush - /.3 52.': 66.0 120.0 251.2 Evergreen Oak ;0 . 't- 81.6 41.6 6o.9 :jore-st. 916.0 1570.1.
Coniferous Threat353.1 11: -?1.5 192.0 1193.2 1252.3 6661'.0 High mountain 1 - t t-. E . pastures. 1 1 i. 1 177.a 1 06. 1, 44b.3 Alpine pastures - 67.5 296.h 726.8 h54.8 1435,6 j lasts ?and( ~bedr. 74.o 26.0 33.0 17.0 34.4 13/..4 ) Populated area 37.0 75.0 15.0 6.0 47.0 1£30.0
Total 2224.0 21:.44.0 251.6.0 2276.0 2226.0 11716.0 - 23 -
Table 5s Complete list of the identified plants oolleoted from projeot area (++)
Families Name of species Taxaceae Taxus wailichiana Zucc. tibiasbias webbiana Jall. Lind. Cedrus deodora(Noxb.)Loud. Picea morinda Link. Pinus excelsa Wall. Pines gerardiana Wall. Cupressaceae Juniperus cór^munio L. ssp. nana syme in sowerby. Juniperue souamata Buch- Ham. in Lamb. Ephedraceae Bp',edra gerardiana wall. Ephedra cercocarpa Gramineae 3romos tectorum L. Festuceae :,romopyrum bonaepartis (Spraeng) I?evstr_i Festuca ovina L. Festuca pratensis 77_uda. + Puccinella 3p. Poa bulbosa Poa sp. rra.grostis pilosa Beauv. Dactylis giomerata L. Velica jaequenontii )ence 1 çl*i.4 Agropyron elongalifórme Drobow. Agropyron longearistatum L. Agrápyron repens (L.) Beauv. 7,lymus caput- medusae L. Koelaria cristata (L.) pers. Aveneae .vena aspera Vunro. 1 Agrostideae Calamagrostis pseudophragmites (Nall. f. )Koci^.. + Agrostis sp. Alopecurus sp. I:uhlenbergia himalayeneis Hack. Cryzopsis gracilis (rem) Pilger. Oryzopsia lateralis (Bgl.) Stopf.
Stipa barbata Deaf. >+ Stipa op. Aristida cyanantha Steud. Aristida coerulescene Zoysieat Dactyloctenium. + Cynodon dactylon (L.) pers 1l,.aldrideae I-?ierochloe odorata (L.) Wahlenb.
+ Collected from outside of demonstration area. ++ Identifications has been made by the help of Yr.. Olaf Andres, Prof of Botany at the Paculty of Science. - 24 -
Families Na--»e of Species
Paníceae Digitaria 3anguina.lis (L.)Scop. ..chinochloa crus. llí (L.)neauv. Setaria viridis £. ) Beauv. Pennisetum flaccidumGriseb.
And ro po go nea e Imperata cylindrica (L.)ßeauv. nrianthus ravennae (L.)Reauv. krthraxon priomodes -lndropogon iscl^aemum L. Cymbopogon sp. Sorp,um haloponse (L.)pers. Chrysopogon aucheri (Boiss. )Stopf. Pha.celurus speciosus Cyperaceae Carex nivalis Boot. Carex echizina Blytt. Carex cf. chiluta 1'.Bleb Cyperus rotundus L. Juncaoeae Juncus inflexus L.* (Juncus glanons Ehrh.) Liliaceae Asparagus sp. + 7Cremurus persicus (Jaub.... spach) Boise.I Eremurus stenophyllus (Boisa.&F3uhse Baker.ssp.aurantiaous(F3oher. wdbo+ Ixiolirion tataricum+ Orchidaceae Orchis persica Schltr.+ Salicaceae Salix alba L. Salix cf. lineariifoliaE. Wolf. Salix seriococarpa N.J. Andèrson Juglandaceae Juglans regia L. Hetulaceae , Corylus jacauemontiiDenoe. Fagaceae ^.uercus baloot 2uerous dilatata Lindl. '?uercus semicarpifoliaSm. Ulmaceae Celtis caucasica Ulmis sp.
2'oraceae Ficus palmata Forsk. A^orus serrata ?oxb. Cannabinaoeae Cannabis sativa L. Urtioaoeae Urtica dioica L. Loranthaceae Y.orthalsella japonica (Thaiib.)Tngi. - 25 -
Families Name of "pecies
Polygonaceae ^oljgonum afrrhanictunl'eisn., *.)C. n avicularo L. biaristatum Aitch. & Homs. bistorta. L. bucharicum Grig. + dumetorum L. hydropipor L. nepalenee I'eisn. It persicaria L. Oxyria digyna Hill. ?umex nepalensis L. ^umex haetatue D. Don. Chenopodiaceae Bassica hiesopifolia Chenopodium album L. Chenopodivzn botrys L. Chenopodium foliaeeum (I"oench. ) Goroke. Crenopoium hybrídum L. Iiolooharis afghanioa ï'ochia prostiata Salsola subcrossa Y. Pop. `;° Sueda arcuata Bunge Po.rtulacaoeae Portulaca oleracea L. Acanthopyllum honigbergeri (Fenz. Barkondal + '- CaryophyllaoeaeArenaria griffithii Boise.+ Cexastium sp. + Dianthus sp. Pleioneura griffithiana (Boise) ?ech. + Silena sp. ` Zanunoulacoae Clematis orientalis L. Delphinium lateseua>satum Gilli + Ranunculus lactus wall. Papaveraceae Papaver nudicaule L. C rucifereae Arabidobsis thaliana (L.) ".eynh. ' (Brussicaceao) Arabidobsis t"iallichii (Hook f. Thorns. ) 'N. Bush. Barbaraa sp. Cardamina sp. Cardenia draba (L.) Dosf. Doscurainia shopia (L.) ':rehb. & Berth Diplotaxis griffithii (Iiook & Thomas) Boisa. Draba korchinskyi (O. Fedtsoh. )Pohle. I'alcalrmia .africana L. )n. Br. + r T'aloalmia cabulioaBoise. ) Hook + Thome. + Afatthio]:a.ohoraeanioa Bge. ox. Boise. + Sisyr.mbrium braesiciforme C.A. Y.+ Ca ppa rida c oae Cleomo ariana ?'edgo. & Lar+ónd. Cleorm viscosa L. Grassulacoae Sedum oocoineum Hoyle. Sedum eworaii Ledep. Ûaxifragaoeae Bergenia stmcheyi (Hook. & Thoms. )'ngler. Saxifraga. Icomarovii Los. - 26 -
Families ríame of Species Platanaceae Platanus orientalis L. 'io saoeae Agrimonia eupatoria L. Arrygdalus kuramica korsh. Céraeus griffithii Toiss. Cotoneastor afghanica klotzsch. Cotoneaster hisarica Pojork. Cotoneaster racomiflora Crataegus songarica Koch.
Dudusua indica (Andrews) Foche. 1 Filipendula vestita ('Iaii. ex G. Don.)t axim. Fragarya muticola (Hook.) Lindi. ex Iacaita. Fragarya veeca L. Padua corunta wall. etRoyle:t-° Potentilla supina ?. otentillareptans L. 7-l.ibus anatolicus (Focko0 Focko ex Hauskn. r'.ubus caosius L. + Sanguisorba minor Scop. Si.baidia cuneata Kunze. :'orbaria tonentosa (Linde.) ':tehder. Grassulariaceao ibesorientalis Deaf. Leguminosao Astragalus anacamploides Sirj. & Roch. f. graveolons Duch. -?-Tam. lanceolatus Bgo. psilacanthus Doiss.
7). schma.l?:ausoui Bgo. + it scorpiurus ßge. + " splondidi seimue :'ir j .& Rech. f. Acacia modesta lall. + Aoscrynomene indioa L. Alhagi camoloruri + Colutca sp. Da lbergia siseo Roxb .+ Cicer songoricum Stoph. & DC.+ Glycÿrrhiza aspora pall. + '-!edysarum bucharicum B. ^edtsch. + Indigofora gorardiana Lespedoza iúncea pers. Lotus corniculatus L. + r'edicago sativa L. redicago lupulina L. relilotus offioinalis L. rreristotropis xanthioidés Vass. + Onobrychis charilcareneis podlech. + dasycephala Baker. + f laxiflora Baker. + Oxytropis cf. immerso (Baker.). Bge. Psoralea drupacea Sesbanaa aculeata (?laid. )pers. + Sophora alopocuroidos L.* Sophora griffithii stocks. Trifolium fragiferum L. - 27 -
Families Name of Species
Leguminosao Trifolium a±rbi.ftuur± V.B. (Fabaceae) " pratense L. + resupinatum L. .,,t,.: Trigonolla cf. pamirica A.'Boríe. Vicia peregrina L. + " sativa L. + n villosa Roth. + Geraniceao Bieborteinia multifida D.C. + Geranium collinum steph. ex Wild. rotundifolium L. " gymnocaulon D.C. ':rodium cicutarium (L.) L/Her. Oxalidaceae Oxalis corniculata L. Linaceae Linum perenne L. + 7,ygophyllaceao Fagonia parivflora Boiss. + Peganum ha.rma.le L. ^utaceae Haplophyllur.r griffithianum Boise. Polygalaceae Folyga.la alpica `:upr. Euphorbiaceae Andrachene cf. ratundifolia C.Ä.P'. Chrozophora. oblicua (Vahl. ) Juss. Tuphorbia anisapetala Prokh. boiséieriana ('Torn. )T'rokh. oblirua (Vahl.) Juss. Anacardiaceae Pistaeia atlantica Desf. khinjuk stocks. Celaalraoeae Fvonymus op. r3yleana Laws.' ;apindaoeae Aeaculug indica colebr. Dodonaea-viscosa L. Balsaminacea Impatíeno parvifloxa D.C. t matildaa ohiovende. Rhamnaoeae Sager',ia theezans Brongn. 2ízyphus jujuba P'ill. 1.'alvaoeae Althaea.nudiflora (Lndl.) Boisa. Hypericaoeae Hypericum porforatum L.
Violaceae ' Vióla biflora L. t occulata Lohm. Thymelaoeae Daphne angustif1l3': C.1'.och=0.mucronatá Royle.° Fleagnaceae Eloagnus angustifolia L. Hyppophae rhamnoides L.+ - 28 -
Families Name of Species Cnagraceáe 1pilobium angustifolium L. " nirsutum L. " minutiflorum Hausskn. Punicaceae Punica granatum L. Umbelliferae Bupleurun oxaltatum Y. Bleb. ( ,piaceae) Primulaceae Androsace himalaica (runt'-..) Hand-1'azz. Primula denticulata smith. + " warphenews'-iana B. Fedtsc'-. asp. roda,,.tba (Bait & Sm.) 'lendeil. Plumbaginaceae Acantholirion sp. + Limonium sp. + Sapotaceae Reptonia buxifolia (Falc.) A.D.C. + Ebenaceae Diospyrus lotus L. Oleaceae Fraxinus xanthoxyloides (D.7on) D.C. Jas^inum ap. Olea-ferruginea Royle. Gentianaceae Gentiana mutellata V.B. Sweertia lactea Bunge. + Aeolepiadaceae Vincetoxioum glaucum ('Iall.) Rech. f. Periploca aphylla Dence. Buddleiáceae Buddleia cf. crispa Benth. Convolvulaceae Convo?vulue arvonsis L. " linoatue L. " gonoladue Boise. ssp. Pyrrhotrychus (Boies).Rech.f + Borraginaceae 4rnebia transcaspica M. Pop. Cynogloesum glochiditum Wall.
' Heliotropium cabulicum Bge.+ " lasiocarpum Fish.& Vey + Lepechnilla sp. Lindelophia anchusoides (Lindi.) Lehm. 2lonnea caspica (''ilid. )Don. Onosma griffithii Vatke. Pseudomertensia sp. Friohodeema inoanum (8 ge.)A.D.C. Verbenaoeae Verbena of.fioinalis L. Vitex pseudonegundo (Hauska) Hand-t"azz. Lamiaceae Ajuga brac'zteosa Fienth. Cs.lamintha ubrosa (r".Bisb) Fisch & Mey Lvcopus europea L. t'arrubium alternidene Reoh. f. Ventha longifolis (L.) Hude. Nepota podoatachys f3enth.. + juncea ßenth. + raphanorrhiza Renth. - 29 -
Families Name of Species
I.amiaceae Orieanum glaucum Rech. f. & Edelb. Perovskia atriplicifolia Benth. + Phl4mis casTineriananenth. + Plectranthus rugosms Nall. Calvia cabulica Benth. " nubicola sweet. " moorcroftiana " buc`:arica V. pob. " rhytidea i3entr.. .,cutellaria heydei rook. f. + átachys parviflora Benth. Thymus afg',anicus Siziphora clinopodioides Lam. Solanaceae Physalia divaricata D.non. Colanum xanthocarpum schrad. & iJendl. '^Titan_ia coagulans (Stooks.l Th+n.+ Datura stramonium L. + ??yoscyamus afghanicus Pojork.+ Atropa acuminata Royle ex Viers+ Scrophulariaceae Logotis korolkowii (Rgl.& Sahmalh)Naxim.+ Linaria melanogramma ''.eoh.f. Aell. & Esf. + Srophularia sp. Verbascum sp. Veronica sp. Plañtaginaceae Plantago major L. ^ubiaoeae Galium sp. Aaperula r;lomerata (I".B.) Griseb.esp. Condensata Rubia cardifolia L. Ehrend. Caprifoliaoeae .Lonicora griffíthii ?3ook f. & Thome microphylia Uild. ex '?oeh & SohulteQ. " nummulariifolia Jaub.& Sambucus wightiana Wall.& 'rimb.t. &Arn.
Viburnum calinifolium-D. Don. - - DipRenaoeae Procephalua afgranicua (Aitch. , & He*? sl. )T3oise. N'orenia persica L. Scabiosa rotata 21. Bieb. Campanulaoeae Campanula loucodada Boise. ''Phyteuma sp. Aeteraooae Achillea biborstinii Afan. Achillea santolina L.. Artemisia flavifolia Gilli + T' herba-alba Asso. " persica Bolas. " scoê:a,ia flaldet. et Kit. Acroptilon repens + Atractylis cunoata I?oiss.+ Centaurea depressa. V. B.+ souarrosa Wild. r* " virgata Lam. + -30-
1`a :ilies ]Ta-,e of 3pecies
Astoraceae Cl.amaegeron oligocophalus Schrenl.c. - Chrysanthemum sp. Chor_drilla canescons Kor, fir. Coryza sp. Cauhinia microcarpa ßoiss. + aptera -1itc7.i & I'emse. + Hortia intermodia (D.C.) O. T'tze. + Iie teropappus car.escens (Noes.) I?ovopolcr. + Pyret'_?.rum parthenifolium Wild. ;aussurea hetoronalle (??.Don.) Gemelo subdentatus Ledep. Solidago sp.
The structures of the main plant communities are defined as follows:
2.7.1 Artemisia brush (sage brush):
This information is made up almost pure Artemisia herba -alba Asso. stands and occupies the areas with deep alluvial sandy soils, that cannot be used for cultivation due to lack of irrigation facilities. Poa bulbosa L. Andropogon ischaemum L., Cymbopogon Sp., Aristida cyanantha steud., Aristida coerulesceus, Lespedeza juncea pers., Limonium Sp. and Astragalus Sp. are dispersed among Artemisia stands.This vegetation covers some 112 hectares in the area, and spreads insmall patches between 1300- 1800 m. The brush itself is not palatable to animals, but the herbaceous plants spread in this vegetation areas are grazed by animals.The forage production is low. However, the areas covered by Artemisia vegetation are good for seeding into forage crops.
2.7.2 Dwarf Chaparral vegetation:
This vegetation type is spread on lime formations in Northern part of catchment. Its main components are, Periploca aphylla Defoe., Sageretia the ezansBrongn, Cotoncaster afghanica klotzech., Ephedra Cercooarpa, Daphne angustifolia C. Koch. These dwarf brush species make up a very loose plant cover. Some herbaceous species such as Aristida Cyanantha Steud., Aristida coeruleseens, Andre o n isohaemum L., Oryzobsis gracilis (Mez.) Pilger., Imperata cylindrioa (L. Beauv. and Phacelurus speciosus are spread among brush species.The area covered by this vegetation is 363.6 hectares and is being used as winter grazing.On account of uncontrolled heavy grazing, they are seriously degraded.It cannot be done much to improve these lands but controlling the grazing, due to steep rocky structure.
2.7.3 Indigofera brush:
This vegetation type is made up by pure stands of Indigofera gerardiana Wall._ which is a Leguminous species growing up to 2 m. high. In this range they invade the forest areas where the tree cover is thin or completely eliminated. In many cases indigofera areas are converted into agricultural land. It is a persistent plant, it sprouts very quickly and vigorously, on the areas that are oleared for cultivation. Although it is a leguminous plant it is not very palatable for animals when it isgreen. Therefore it is not heavily used, but it was observed that both goats and cattleare browsing it sometimes. It is anticipated that if young shoots are out and dried itcan be eaten by,all type of animals in winter time. Although it has not been possible to . get determined the forage value of this plant it is expected that its nutritive valus - 31 -
is high. It covers 251.2 heotares.If a treatment to make livestock to grase this plant either green or dry cannot be discovered, these areas should be-.eleared and *eeded to forage crops.
2.7.4 Evergreen oak forest:
The main species of this vegetation type is Quercus baloot Griff. Pistaoia atlan- tica Deaf. Fraxinus xanthoxyloides (D. Don.) D.C., Amygdalus Kuramica Korsh., Celtic caucasica Wind. and Ulmus Sp. are inter -dispersed.Under the tree layer, brushes of Cotoncaster Sp., Sophora griffithii Stochs. and Daphne Angustifolia C. Kooh occur. Some herbaceous plants such as Eragrostis pilosa Beauv., Phaoelurus speoiosus, Imperata clyndirioa (1.) Beauv., Chenopodium botrys L.
Chenopodium foliaoeum (Moench) Gorcke. and polygoEpnum afghanicum Meins and DC. are common as under vegetation.Evergreen oak forest occupies a vast area in the region between agricultural land and high coniferous forest. It stretches from 1500 m up to 2000 m. Its surface is 1570.4 hectares.This forest land is heavily being grazed throughout the year and trees continuously being lopped to feed the animals and provide fuel wood. This practice brought about serious damages on land and on trees.
' However, it is not expected that these stands will supply industrial wood in future, but they are important for forage production to the local animals and fuel wood supply of the country. Some parts can be converted by plantations into high produóing coniferous forest.
It has to be devised a management system to provide the use of these forests for both forage and fuel wood production without giving any damage to the continuation of the forest cover.
2.7.5 Coniferous forest:
Coniferous forests occupy the land between 2000 m - 3500 m and form a rather even cover in this zone. Coniferous forests cover 6664.0 hectares.The main tree species composing this forest are Cedrus deodora (Roxb.) Loud, Abies webbiana (Wall.) Lindl., Pinue excelsa wall., Pinus gerardiana Wall and Pioea morinda Link.
This tree species makes up either pure stands or mixed' stands. Several combine, - tions of mixture exist in the area. Pinus gerardiana wall. restricted only South facing calohreous slopes of Wersek valley.Taxes wallichiana Zuoc.,Querous dilatata Lindl., Querous semioarpifolia Sm., and Padua cornuta Wall. et Hoyle, are inter- dispersed as single stems or groups in the coniferous forest zone. Sorbaria tomentosa ( Lindl.) Rehder. and Viburnum calinifolium D. Don are common brush species on humid stream banks,up to 2800 m. Some herbaceous plant species such as carex Sp., Pea Sp. and Fragarya Sp., are also growing under forest stands.
II
Perhaps the main management objective of this forest is timber production.But it has to be used for forage production as well. Therefore, a grazing management plan, compatible with forest management, should be devised and implemented, in order to exploit this forest according to maximum sustained yield principles of forest management. According to forest management plan (6) 525.8 ha. area should be protected from the grazing for regeneration purpose, over the next five years. The rest oan be grazed moderately according to a grazing management plan.
2.7.6, ' High mountain ranges:
High mountain pastures occupy the land along the stream banks in coniferous forest zones whioh is not suitetble for tree growth. Its main components are herbaoeous,grass 'and forb species. The only use of these lands are by grazing. The common species on ' -32-
these pastures are Poa S. A stis S Cynoglossum glochiditum Wall., Stachis parViflora Benth. Mentha longifolia L. Buds. Epilobium minutiflorum Hausakn and n humid areas trifolium repens. L. Although, due to heavy grazing, existing vegetatiön on these ±Peas is not climax, it is believed that local site factors is limiting thetree'growthion suah areas and it is not possible to convert them into high forest and has to be used for animal grazing. Even the land is too steep for any range improvement practices on these areas. The only thing that can be done on these lands is controlling the grazing.
Surface occupied by these pastures is 444.8 hectares.
2.7.7 Alpine pasturest
Alpine pastures occupy the area over 3000 - 3500 m. According to the topography, exposure and soil conditions, they display two main formations, that is herbaceous plants formation and Juniper formation.
South facing steep rooky slopes are loosely covered with almost pure Juniper species. There are two species of Junipers, Juniperus communia L. Sep. nana. Syme. and Juniperus squamata Buch - Ham. Some Rosa Sp. and Ribes Sp. are interdiapersed among juniper stands.
Festuca ovina L. oryzobaia gracilis (Mez) Pilger, Agropyron longeariatatum L., Euphorba Sp., Epilobium anguatifolium L., and Artemisia persica Boisa. can be seen among bushes. This vegetation type covers about 50% of Alpine zone.
Herbaceous plants formation is made up mainly by Hierochloe odorata (L.) Wahlenb., Festuca ovina L., Koelaria cristata (L.) pers. polygonum biaristatum Aitch. & Hemel., Bupleurum exaltatum M. Bieb., Oxytropis immerse pBakeJ Bge., Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam., Fragarya vasca L., Cerastium Sp., Carex Ste, these species are mixing with each other in different combination and make too many small communities, which are not differing from one another in production or palatability.But the communities made up by Hieroohloe odorata (L.) Wahlenb, create some problems.
It has an odour which renders it unpalatable to grazing animals. As it is not touched by animals, it is a vigorous invader plant.In fact it already occupies all fertile parts of alpine pastures. Some measures should be searched for either to render it palatable to animals or eradicate it at all. The area of alpine pastures covers some 1485.6 hectares.
As they are too remote, deprived from conneotion roads, the land"is too sloped and grazing season is not more than two months, it is not feasible to undertake too expensive improvement programmes on these lands.Grazing management is the only improvement system applicable to these lands. Besides this,the dunk piled in corrals can be conveyed and spread on flat parts of the range. Some water development and simple shelter oonstruo- tion is desirable for even spreading of the animals on range.
3. SOCIO -ECONOMIC CONDITIONS
In order to assess the socio- economio situation in Tohapadara catchment area a ques- tionnaire form is prepared and filled by families. Through these questionnaires the following information is collected.
Number of families, number of animals and size of land owned by each family, cereal production, forage production, employment need as work month, materials sold by family, materials purchased by family, the places that they are used to graze their animals and grazing fees. These questions are answered direotly by the hèad of the family.In the case of absence of him the available village representative "Malik" gave information to rill up this questionnaire. Possibly the number of animals, land and production is a little bit lower than the real figure and the purchased materials are high, but the number of families and pulation la correct. The oonolusion taken out of this study is given below (table6). -33-
Table 6 -Pulationi Employment, Agrioulture Land and Produotion in Tohapadara by villages and forest exploitation sexists-.
S.3ries number No. of Popula Employment -Lana P roduct i o n an3. village Family -tion need namo Ho, of work ownerArea wheat corn rico oereon month ha.
SerikJ:, I
(alachn 22 124 14 74 21 7.8 '7940 6225 3450
`ia?:;3 . 27 155 29 207 20 6.0 14450 9375 5200 Toha mbarak 61 376 45 383 60 38.4 44700 50900 17550 ra,),;c,h 141 993 123 1168 133 43.4 35750 25645 9000 Total 251 1648 211 1832 234 95.6 102840 92145 35200
Scrips II Í c.ande.y ' 149 1039 110 898 106 56.9 .75650 58190 21840 11aL'1.2Ora 56 421 45 199 56 24.0 46425. 23200 8100 ICuzhondruk 42 256 55 258 41 24.2 18800 23750 11125 Lr.rhpndruk 23 125 19 122 23 10.6 8350 8375 3250 3o:v1zot 31 194 .19 93 29 10.4 7050 9725 - Sutmc.ra 33 168 34 207 33 10.1 7125 3425 1500 Goehalam 11 118 10 47 10 4.1 2100 1850 345 íloreck 63 333 35 337 62 20.4 22400 22005 6875 Kod,,a.y 23 114 15 93 21 10.9 11925 9550 3550 Iic.zarmirgalo 76 376. 68 366 69 25.9 12255 16790 550 Total 507 3145 410 2620 450 197.5 212080 182360 57135
SoriocIII
ICr_tipo 304 43 43 282 42 6.0 21650 34875 IMO
,ürioa IV ICat ak 8 38 8 52 8 7.0 4950 7050
Sorieo V
ßahalirgalo 72 347" 68 493 67 31.0 26025 33750 150 ]:^':tabbotcalo 47 224 47 267 41 11.5 6050 8825 - Zirn.yako 37 251 35 191 30 23.3 20650 31430 - x:.rbolo.y .. 62 265 62 296 62 16.3 7745 12475 ]]lkórä 35 168 26 156 30 10.9. 4526 7588. - S3atur 32 156 30 197 32 24.0 18050 22300 $oyit1o.y1 24 134 22 167 19 31.9 13350 21140 T.,ta1 309 1545 290 1772 281 153.9 96395 137467, 150
Gonoral Total 1118 6679 962 6558 1015 460.0 437915 453895 92485 34
3.1 Population
The population who is situated in the catchment area is 6679. This population is living in 1118 families and is situated in 23 villages. In the villages Cher. "are. .village representatives "Melik" who are in touoh with the lower administrative govern- ment authority "Alakadari" to solve the problems of their villagers. According to the size of the village there are one or more meliks in the villages. The population of Tohapadara catchment is divided into two parts a000rding to their origin. Although the relations in these two groups are not bad, some misunderstanding might arise in some oases. For example if a public work such as road construction is being conducted in one part, they do not allow the workers, who are from the other part, to come and work in their working area.This case might come up in employing the local people in forest employment, such as exploitation, road oonstruotion etc.Therefore care should be paid to this fact when such forest work is conducted in the region.
3.2 Land and land use patterns
The total land and its breakdown in the different uses is shown in table 7.
Table 7; Land Use Pattern ha.
S e r i e s Land type I T_I IIT IV V Total crf..
.Agricultural land 67.8 119.1 , 03.2 1 :7.8 1 41 .8 460.0 3.9 Alpine pasture - 67.6 236.1: 726.8 454.8 1485.6 12,7 1. High mountain 1!.i,. is 116.4 177.5 106.4 l.11111.ß 3.8 pasture. -' Total pasture - 112.0 352.3 904.4 561.2 1930.4 16.5 Brush land 270.8 209.6 52.4 66.0 128.0 726.8 6.2 Oak Forest 915.0 470.4 81.6 111.6 6o.5 1570.4 13.1: Coniferous Forest853.41431.61920.0 1193.2 1252.8 6664.o 56.9 Total forest land 1774.41902,02009.6 1234.6 1313.6 82311.4 70.4 Riverbed(gravel) 74.0 26.0 33.0 17.0 311.0 134.4 1.5 Populated land 37.0 75.0 15.0 6.o 117.0 180.0 1.5 Total. non- produc- 111.0 101.0 48.0 tine land. 23.0 31.4 364.4 3.0 Total Land 2224.024114.02546.0 2276.0 2226.0 11716.0 100.0
As it will be seen from this table the agricultural land is 460.0 heotares and performs 3.9% of the total area. Total forest land movers 70.4% of the area, productive forest land 56.9% and pasture land 16.5%. However, the whole area with the exception of agricultural land is being grassed.
The average agricultural land per oapita is 0.069 ha. and per family 0.41 ha. There are some 103 families in the area without any land, when this faot is considered the average size of agricultural holding is figured up to 0.45 ha. -35-
Although the agricultural lands are being intensivelyworked and cropped twice in a year, still it is not ample to provide enough employment as well as-food, for existing population. There are 6558 working months,exoess labour potential, thät -means one- person from eaoh family needs for 5.9 months' employment. - According to providedinforma,- tiormany of them go out of the area for work, forthe most of the year.Even some 20 families immigrated to the towns.It is estimated that theaverage annual income per capita is 2400 Afs. which is lower than the average income in the country. The living , standard of the people, living in thisarea, seems to be too low indeed.
3.3 Agriculture
Agriculture is the main occupation of the peopleliving in the catchment.The area available for agriculture is all terraced, levelledand provided with water for irrigated agriculture. The soil is intensively worked and croppedtwioe in a year. The available land and agricultural production is summarized in table 6. Area of agricultural land is 460.0 hectares. This land is owned by 1015 families:there are 103 families without land.
Main crops are wheat, corn and rice. Total annual production is 437915 kg wheat, 453 895 kg corn and 92 485 kg rice. Annual cereal production per hectareis 2140 kg through double cropping. The annual cereal productionper capita is 147.37 kg. , According to our estimations, annual cerealconsumption per capita is 281.08 kg. is 133.71 kg deficit There between production and consumption thatmeans agricultural lands and their production can only meet about the half of the need of thepopulation.
According to our observations existingcropping practices is rather intensive any increase in the yield is not expected without and changing crop. Beans, potatoes, and pea-nuts should be tested, in the area. The people are very acoeptive. They accept very sown any new thing that is profitable for them.
In addition to cereals, each familygrows about 20 - 30 kg beans.In Suleyman Shah and Awara valley there are considerable walnut trees whichare producing 5 - 10 ton walnut annually, Diospyros lotus isa very common fruit -tree. There is no other orop in the area worth to mention.
34 Animal husbandry
After agriculture, animal husbandry isthe second main occupation for the tion of Tchapadara. popula- As already discussed, the productioncapacity of agricultural land is not enough to support the living of the people situated in thearea. Therefore . animal raising is an alternative for themto bridge the gap between On account of this situation production and need. a rather high animal number is being handled. The number and kind of the animals owned by localpopulation is shown on table 8.
3.4.1 Poultry:
The number of fowls existing in thearea, is 5193, that'?would mean about for each capita. one fowl Poultry is a kind of cash for the families,whenever they go to the town they take a few ohickens to meet their expenditure in town by sellingthem. size of the chickens and their The eggs is not bigger than a partridge and'itseggs. lay about 30 - 40 eggs annually. They
If the breed of the poultry is improved and some care is given to theirfeed, they can add considerable amount to the income of thefamily. Besides that there is plenty of water in the area, therefore Duckraising might be more easy and region. profitable for the - 36 -
Table 8 -Number and kind of animals owned by Tohapadarapeople, by villages. and Forest Exploitation Series that villagesare located in.
ì: á
Name of Villages PoultryGoat Sheep Coo Series I. Oa lao ha 203 98 22 59 16 ' Tango ' 141 57 4 212 21 Tchambarak 733 2371 414 328 85 Badgah 416 521 24 132 68 T o t a l 1548 3047 464 7 31 190 Seriee II. ,, 0andey. 911 455 292 205 105 rashora 284 764 258 154 88 Iíuzhendruk 154 289 152 43 34 Barhendruk 90 68 34 31 19 Seykot 37 74 12 12 7 Sutmsra .7), 55 25 16 32 27 Goshalam 7 10 1 5 5 Ziersek 246 243 19 68 36 I.odgay 134 133 32 60 15 Hazarmirqale 360 194 8 64 40 T o t a 1 22782255 824 674 376 Series III. Kxapo 140 423 95": 76 37 SeriesIV,
Katak . 163 127 27 13 7 Serles V. Bahadirgäle 356 601 70 161 4.5 rahabbetqale 97 128 - 47 30 Zemyako 198 , 540 Karbolsy 124 109 50 112 233 - - 51 Ilakora 56 1.73 Sa,rtor - 14 6 131 156 12 66 17 Ûoyítheyl 7(Suleyman Shah) 114 501 47 55 21 T o 't a 1 10642417 253 452 220 General T o t a 1 8269 5193 1663 195-1 830 - 37 -
3.4.2 Goats:
Goats are considered most beneficial animals by the people. They da.not neee, much care, and supply the need of the family.for milk, meat and goat hair. For this reason most of the people prefer goats to other animals and the number of goats being raised by the people is higher than other animals.
Table 9, shows the total number of the goats owned by local people, and their breakdown by owners, villages and by forest exploitation series, where the villages are located. As it will be seen on the table, out of 1118 families, living in the area, 759 (60%) families have goats, and 433 families have less than 5 goats. Only 154 families have more than 10 goats.
The goats breed being raised in the region is a light brown long haired breed.
3.4.3 Sheep:
Sheep are raised only for their wool and meat.In the region the sheep is not milked; the breed of the sheep is a local small thin tailed breed.The number of sheep and sheep owners is low in comparison to the goat.The remson to this is the difficulty of raising the sheep.
Table 10 is showing the number of sheep and their breakdown by owners and villages and by forest exploitation series that villages stay in. As'.:'1t will beseenon this"' table, the number of sheep owners are 280 (25 %) families and only 37 families havemore than 10 sheep The sheep are generally fed at home or grazed around the villages.
3.4.4 Cow and oxen:
Cows are the main milk supply of the families. Although the number of the cows is not as high as the goats, the number of cow owners is higher that the numberof goat owners. The number of families having cows are 768 (68 %). As it is the case for sheep, cows are also fed at stable with the strow in winter and withgreen corn stems provided by thinning the corn fields in summer.
Oxen are rather luxuriant animals in the region; 664 families own 830 oxen, that means only 164 families have pair oxen and the rest own single oxen. 'Two families have to get together to make a pair of oxen to work their soil.
Due to feed shortage, the people do not raise non -productive animals suchas donkeys, mules and horses. The soil is worked almost by manpower, all material trans- portation from field to home, from home to market and from market to home is being made on man back.
3.5 Animal husbandry systems
In general animal raising in the region has a pastoral characteristic. As already referred, small holdings are sedentary and big flocks are transhumant. 'Fable 11 shows the number, sise and composition of transhumant animals, by their original villages and forest exploitation series, which they use for winter grazing. Table 12 shows the same animals by the forest exploitation series which they use for summer grazing. As it can be seen in these tables, the transhumant animals are a small portion "of total animal population. The majority of transhumant flocks are composed of goats.In both tables some sheep, cows and oxen are being seen as transhumant. In fact these animals belong to the people who have some agricultural land in coniferous forest region.These people moveto this land, in summer time with their animals, to sow their land anäcare the crop. Meanwhile they graze their animals around their lands. So it might not be considered as. transhuman%. However transhumante own some cottages in summer grazing -38-
Table 9 - The number of goats and their breakdownaocording to the site of ownership by villages and forest exploitationseries.
. Size of ownership 1-5 6-10 11 -20 21-30 : 30- Total
Hamo of. : ow- goat OW- village and g:,:st' ow- goat' ow- :;oat'ew-goat :ow-goat nor nor 'nor 'ner 'nor : t,urieo 11o. .: ner :
.
Series I
qalr,o'aa 3 12 7 56 - - 1 30 -- - 11 98 Taw;o 9 33 3 24 - - - - - 12 - 51 'i'o':,. ,mb4ra): 2 10 5 50 16 284 14 410 23 1617 60 2371 Bad,-,;ah 83 234 11 85 9 142 - - 1 60 104 521 Total 97 289 26 215 25 426 15 440 24 1677 187 3047
an3ou II
Qc.irloy 42 119 14 120 4 56 1 30 2 130 63 455 ri::uhora 18 64 16 167 7 103 3 90 6 340 52 764 Barhendruk 14. 39 4 29 - - - - - 18 68 Kuzhundruk 5 7 6 52 3 50 - - .4 130 18 289 Soyl:ot 12 42 4 32 - - - - 16 74 iluLmara 15 25 ------15 25 Goalic:ls,3a - 1 10 - - - - - ' 1 10 Si.ir4G1: 31 69 7 64 2 40 1 30.,1,., 1 40 42 243 Xudga.y 15 51 4 32 1 20 1 30 - 21 133 IIt.:.c.rmircTalc: 23 62 12 101 à 2 31 - - - 37 194 Total 175 478 70 607 19 300 6 18Ó 13 690 233 2255
Soricr III
Krrspo 15 40 9 78 4 55 2 60 3 190 33 423
S::rior; IV
l;a tak 6 2 2 16 2 35 1 30 1 40 8 127
;cries V '
llri,adirr;alc 28 85 I 18 154 11 177 2 55 4 210 63, 681 lla)e.bbotqale 23 54 3 74 ------31 128
Zir.iyako ' 20 69 6 56 2 40 1 25 5 350 34 540 Kc.rboloyl 104 34 12 99 2 35 - - - - 48 230 l'iakora 14 47 2 16 1 20 - - 2 90 19 173 .",.zrtor 19 70 12 86 ------31 156 So.yithu.yl 6 16 7 58 1 11 2 60 6 356 22 501 Sulo.fnanahah
Totr:1 144 445 65 543 17 283 5 140 17 1236 248 2419
Coaoral Total 433 1258. 172 1459 67 1099 29 850'58 3603 759 8269 -39-
Table 10 - The number of sheep and their breakdown a000rdinutp thesize of ownership by Forest Exploitation series and villa. tR
Size of Ownership 1 - 5 6 - 10 11 - 20 21 - 30 31 - To tal
Number of series Ow- Ani Ow- Ani- Ow- Ani- Ox Ani - Ow- Ani - Ow- Ar and name of villages ner nn.l ner mal ner mal ner mal ner bal n er me.
Series I.
2alanha 5 14 1 8 - - - - 6 2: Tango 2 4 - -- - - 2 1 Tohambarak 19 78 9 79 5. 82 -- , 3 85 "2 90 38 41/ Badgah 7 18 1 6 - - 8 2l T o t a 1 33114 11 93 5 82 3 85 2 90 52 461 Series II.
qRnday 34 83 5 36 7 103 1 30 1 40 48 291 2ashora 23 67 8 65 7 101 1 25 _= 39 25f'
Kuzhendruk 3 12 3 30 6 110 .. - - = 12 15,^ Barhendruk 10 22 2 . 12 r- -, - - - - 12 31' 1 Seykot 8 12 - - -. S 12 Sutnara 8 16 - - .. .. - ., - 8 1(
Goshalam 1 1 - - - .. is - is = i , tlersek 7 19 - _ - - _ 7 1f
Kadgay - 7 14 .,. .. 1 8 -18 - . = z Hazamirgale 2 8 - ... / -- - 2 f T o t a 1 103254 18 143 21 332 2 55 1 40145 82? SerieelII. Kripo 15 56 3 26 1 13 -- - - 19 9r Series IV. Katak 2 7 2 20 - - - - - _ 4 27 'Series- V.
Bahadirgale 17 42 4 28 ------21 7C Dahabbotqale ------Zimyako 15 44 3 30 1 20 1 30 - .. 20 12'
:arboley ------.. Sartor 7 12 ------7 12
Seyithey1 ' ` C 31 2 16 - - 10 4"
' T o t a l , 25.. 47129 9 74 1 20 1 30 r - - 58 General Total 200560 43 356 28 447 6170 3 130 280 166' - 40 -
Table 11 - Number and composition of transhumant flockswhich are.'grazing in Tchapadara high mountain ranges duringsummer season, by their original villages and forest exploitationseries where these villages are located,,,
` Illage nine flock f l o e k' ans series 11o. co m p o s i ti o n number goat sheep cow ox
Series I.
la.1a c'ria 1 25 1 1 1 Tr.hambox-ak 25 182 23 1 4 11 Baadgàh 23 499 77 27 29 T o t a l 39 706 101 42 41 Serios II.
`?andey . 3 65 - 6 2 Vashor3 4 84 15 5 6 Hendruk 5 193 2 4 7 Goshalam 5 ¡: 119 29 6 6 'Iersek 7 150 10 4 7
hodgay - 1 20 1 1 1 Hazamirdale 10 199 - '15 j 6 T o t a l 34 830 79 44 33 Series III.
Irrapo 8 216 - 11 8 Series IV.
Itstak 8 259 9' - 10 Serios V. Soyitheyl 6 139 6 6 3 Sartor 8 283 13 10 Na ko ra 3 135 3 2 fq.hadirgale 3 50 5 2 ?ihabbetgale 3 81 7 3 Zimyako 5 140 6 7 arboley 8 Total 36 99 12 9 r c 77 Nomad ' M. General Total 130 31 ß8 18o 152 -41-
Table 12 - The number and composition of transhumant flocks;by forest exploitation series, where they are grazing duringsummer, in Tchapadara demonstration area.
Name of villages No. of Number of animals flock goat sheep cow ox Series I. Tehambarak 37 612 102 55 33 Series II. Werse1 22 615 78 20 21 Series III. lalaygal 24 67 2 - 31 4o Series IV. Bznguìchal 33 8143 _ 47Í 38 Series V. ruleynra.n Shah 14 446 - 21 '20
T ò t a 1 130 3188 100 174 1,52
regions, where they move to in summer to graze their animals,but they do not practise cultivation. When the owner of these cottages sells hisown flock he hires these cottages to anybody no matter whether he is from the regionor not. Therefore, some . flocks from outside the region are coming into the region forsummer grazing. In 1973 summer season, five families are recorded in thearea who were not natives to the region.These 5 families were having 250 goats, 16 cows and 24oxen.
Although animal husbandry plays an important part in theliving of the inhabitants of the area, it is being employed in a rather primitiveway.No effort is being made to improve the breed and increase production. Animal husbandry is completely deprivéd from Animal Health and Disease control facilities. .
3.6 Livestock Feed
' As it is already discussed, livestock dependsalmost completely on natural grazing lands, for their feed supply. Forage crop cultivation is not being in the region. practised at all Although some families sow about 100 m2Trifolium resupinatum L., they use it as'human food. The people of the region, eat olover whichis considered as an animal feed, and offer portulaca to animals, whichis mainly consumed by human; and not palatable to animals. is The total forage production capacity ofdifferent land types are shown on table 13.
3.6.1 Cultivated forage:
The only forage being grown on agricultural landare wheat and rice strow and Porn stems. This rughage is generally used to feed theoxen, cows and partly sheep, in winter time. The corn is sown too dense and thinned gradually,throughout the growing as it grows. season
w., -42-
Table 13 - Type of land and forage production as metric ton, by forest exploitation series.
Type of land 7ora.ge production metric ton Series series Series series `; eries Total I. II TIT IV V
Agricultural land 47 :8.6 338.8 582.4 334.6 992.6 3220.0 Artemisia brush 38.6 174 - - 56.0 warf, Chaparral 77.11 6ú.O - _ - 145.4 Indigofexabrush - 5.8 62.9 79.2 153.6 301.5 Evergreen Oak Forest 549.6 282.2 49.0 25.0 36.5 91'.2.3 Coniferous forest 128.2 195.0 270.6 158.2 168.2 920.8 High mountain pasture -- 133.3 87.3 133.2 79.8 333.6 Alpine pasture - 118.7 170.2 523.3 327.5 1069.7 T o t a l 1269.0 1486.2 1222.4 1253.5 1758.2 6989.3
The stuff taken off by thinning and weeding ofcorn cultivation is used as greens to feed the milk cows and sheep.The excess part of it, if any, is dried and stored for winter feeding.Furthermore the branches of mulberry treesare lopped in fall and stored for winter feeding. The total forage supplied by the rughage ofagricultural land is estimated 3220.0 metric ton.
3.6.2 ' Forage production and use of natural grazing lands:
Natural grazing lands fall into one of the three maincategories. These are brush lands, forest and pastures.
3.6.2.1 ...Brush landa: There are three types of brushlands in the area. (a) Dwarf Chaparral, (b) Artemisia (sage) brush, and (c) Indigofera brushes.
.,:(a) Dwarf Chaparral: This vegetation occurs on lime atone formationin the North of the region which stretches from 1300 up to 200m.; their vegetal charao- teristics are discussed in paragraph 2.7.2. In addition to the brush species some grass and forb species grow as under vegetatión. This brush type is loosely spread on 363.6 hectares and produces about 145.0metric ton air dry-''. forage. This forage is being consumed through winter andspring grazing. -43-
The condition of this brush cover is verypoor. The only alternative of improvement is to control the grazing.
(b) Artemisia brush land: The vegetal characteristics of the -ypeare given in ,paragraph 2.7.1. This vegetation type is confined to small areas,from 1300 m. up to 1800 m., where the soil is deep and irrigation possibilitiesare not available. The area covered by this vegetation is 112 hectaresand produces about 56.0 ton air dry forage. Artemisia brush lands are good for forage crop cultivation. The studies carried out in the region provedthat the forage production potential of these lands can be increasedup to 3-4 tons per hectare by reseeding, while they are producing at the present timeonly 400 - 500 kg per hectare.
(a) Indigofera brushes:Vegetal characteristics of this vegetation typeare discussed in paragraph 2.7.3.This type of vegetation is commonon humid areas between 2000 - 2700 m.It is a legume brush and growsup to 2 m. height. It invades the thinned or completely cleaned coniferousforest land. The. areas covered by this vegetation are being cleared for agriculture,but it is very persistent and sprouts very vigorously,on the lands which are cleared for cultivation. Although it is a leguminous plant the palatibility is low and it is browsed very lightly, Due to this fact the condition of these brush lands is good.It has the potential of producing 1- 1.5 ton air dry leaf per hectare.It is expected that the animals willoonsume the dried leaves of this plant. If a treatment cannot be found to feed thisplant to the animals the areas covered with this brushshould be cleared and seeded. to cultivated forage plants.
3.6.2.2 Forest land: Forest land can be split into two categoriesfrom the view point of forage pr duotion. These are: (a) Evergreen oak forests and (b) coniferous forests.
(a) Evergreen oak foresta: The vegetative characteristics of this forestare described in paragraph 2.7.4. They stretch on the slopes from 1500- 2000 m. .The area covered by this formation is 1570.4hectares.It has the potential of producing 942.3 ton dry forage. At the present time theyare being used very heavily for year round grazing, and the branches of thetrees are lopped for animal feeding and for fuel withoutany consideration to continuation of vegetation. A management' system has to be urgently devisedfor these lands to control heavy grazing and destructive lopping.
(b) Coniferous forests:Vegetal characteristics of this formationare described in paragraph 2.7.5. They make ùp an even cover between EvergreenOak forest and Alpine pasture lands. It is certain that main management objectivefor these landa is timber production. However, according to the forest management plan (6) the areas lying outside the regenerationblocks can be grazed moderately .under an effective grazing management plan.The total area covered by this... formation is 6664.0 hectares, 525.8 hectaresare set.`aside as regeneration blocks, over the next five years. The rest 6138.2 hectares can be grazed moderately. Total forage production of these.lands is 920.8ton dry matter. At the present time this forage is consumed by transhumantflocks which are moving into this forest region duringsummer.
3.6.2.3 Pasture lands: Open pasture land is considered in two partsaccording to the geographical locations, (a) high mountain pastures, (b)Alpine pastures.
(a) High mountain pastures: The vegetative characteristics of thesepastures are described in paragraph 2.7.6.
These pastures cover theopen areas in coniferous forests which are not suitable for tree growth.Their plant composition is madeup by grass and forbs. They are used in summer season for grazing. The area is 444.4 hectares -44-
and can produce 333.6 ton dry matter. Due to rough topography androoky structure nothing can be done on this pasture but controllir the grazing. (b) Alpine pastures: These pastures are locatedover 3300 m. Their vegetal -:charaoteristics are studied in paragraph 2.7.7. Almost 40% of this land is covered by Juniper and the rest bygrass and forbs.The area occupied by these pastures is 1485.6 hectares and forageproduction potential is 1069 ton dry matter. This forage is consumed by the transhumantflocks in July, August and September.
These pasture lands are too remote steepand are deprived from any transpor- tation facilities. Besides that, the period of use is tooshort. These conditions render the expensive improvementprogrammes unfeasible.
However, oontrolling the grazing, applyingfarm yard manure that exists in the area, animal water development and construction of some simpleshelter are desirable in order to increase the yield,provide a moderate use and to dis- . tribute the livestock evenly on therange.-
3.7 Balance between forage production and need
As it will be seen on table 13 the estimatedtotal forage production in the is 6989.3 metric ton dry matter. region The total animal population isfigured out from table 8 as`4767 big animal unit (5 small animal unit is accepted asone big animal unit). The cows existing in the region weigh about 250 kgand their dry matter requirements about 7.5 kg per day. are According to this base, the annual forageneed of the animals, existing in the area, is 13037.7 metric ton dry matter. If we compare this figure the forage production (6989.3 ton), with we see that the forage need ismore than twice of the. production. Forage production can be increased on some lands by feasiblerange management programmes. On brush and forest lands the only led grazing which serves to maintain feasible treatment is control- these areas in good conditionand brings about some increase of forage. Through these extensive treatmentsthe doubling of forage production cannot be realized in theregions even through long term programmes. range management Under these circumstances the onlyalternative for feeding the properly is to reduce their number. animals The expert is of the opinionthat this is not impossible. It can be seen through table 9 that, out of 826913oats existingin the region, 5552 goats are owned by 157families and the size of their holdings-are Only by reducing these 157 flocks below over 10. 10, it will be possible to reducethe goat population 50%í and that will solve the whole problem. 'It is certain thatthese 157 persons can voluntarily sell out their flocks ifsome satisfactory employment is provided to them through forestry operations.
3.8 Animal production
In order to figure out'the total yieldproduced by animals, the total kind of animals, calving, lambing, number and kidding and survival ratio, the priceof one year old animals of all kind, the wool, milk and meat production and the pricesof'these products have been estimated, by questionnaire. Later the total productionand its value is figured out from this data. This process is summarizedon table 14 (prices and values are local).
As it will be seen on table 14, thetotal production from the 7 083 440 Afs. animals is This corresponds to 634 Afsper person per year. -45-
Table 14 - Livestock production in Tchapadara catchment
Animal I?umber Animal products held pound goat sheep cow goat TIool oat cow hair milk milk
Humber of Animai 8269 1663 1951 50 % Pate of increase 31 % 80 1.14 1 ,72 125 720
Production 2563 831 1561 9427 2827320375598320 Unit prie Afa. 409.0 544.4 725 8 '13 3 3 Value Afs.1048267 1523961131725 75416 367512611251794960
Average ' 510.9 224.1 2740.1 per unit
Total animal production 7083440 Afs.
Animal production sharedper person 634 Afs.
It goes without saying that thesefigures are too low and the reason. to this is poor animalhusbandry practices, and especially insufficient feeding. -46-
4. RANGE PLANTS SCREENING AND RANGE RESEEDING TRIALS
During his survey operations the expert has observed everywhere the overcrowds4 animal population, the shortage of forage, and as a consequence to this, poor animal and evidence of serious descend of natural grazing lands.
This situation led him to search the possibility of increasing forage production very soon, in the region.
As the agricultural lands were being cropped twine in a year and stillwere not providing the cereal required for the subsistence of the local people, attempts to encourage the forage production on agricultural land is not promising any success for the time being.
On the other hand during the survey operations the expert has detected thefact that the areas covered with Artemisia brush, offer some potential forrange reseeding, although they were seriously eroded.
Under these circumstances, it has been decided that the suitability of theselands to the forage cultivation should be studied very soon, asa base for future working programmes. .To achieve this, two areas are selected, one in_Mashora and the other in Badgah, and some forage plants screening and range reseeding' trials havebeen conducted, on these lands.
As the areas were exposed to accelerated erosion before seeding trials,the area has been terraced in cooperation with watershed management expert.
4.1 Range plants screening trials
Following terracing, thearea is cleared out from brush cover, the soil is worked by hand digging, and some 23 grass, 17 legumes and 2 forb speciesare seeded by hand in rows, on to both areas.First seeding has been made in December 1972 and itis repeated in April 1973, the performance of the seeded speciesare judged on August 1973. The species seeded, origin of the seed, seeding dates and degree ofsuccess is shown for Mashora area on table 15, and Badgah area on table 16. A view of these tables suggests that although many species have failed, thereare some species than can be used successfully to seed Artemisia brush lands into high productivegood quality forage crops, and that the legumes should be seeded in spring,grass in fall.
It should be mentioned that there are some high producing speciesnative to the area, such as Lespedeza cuneata, Ahdropogon ischaemum, Cymbopogonsp. Aristida sp; the seeds of these species should be collected, reproduced andused seeding in the region.
4.2 Range reseeding trials
These trials are restricted to the species that their seedswere available. The seeds have been provided by Range Management Section of Forestry Presidency.The species used for fall seeding were Agropyron cristatum, Medicago sativa andSanguisorba minor. The rate of seed is 25 kg /ha. Seed mixture is composed of 50% Agropyron, 25% Medicago and 25% Sanguisorba; in spring seeding Lolium perenne and Festucarubra are added to .mixture. The mixture used for spring seeding is composed of Agropyron 25 %,Lolium 10%, Festuca 15%, Medicago 25% and Sanguisorba 25 %. Seeding rate was 25 kg /ha.
In fall only row seeding is employed, rills have been made by diggers,seed spread in those,.rills by hand and covered by hand rakes. In spring seeding both the row seeding and broadcast seeding are employed. In broadcast seeding the seed has been broadcast bi }land and.then covered by hand rakes. -47-
Table 15 - List of Range plants seeded for screening trails to the Maehora area in 1972.146117=d 1973 Spring
Date of check s 9.8.1973 Data of seeding and degree of success
Name of species Origin 3.12.1972 11.4.1973
Agropyron criotatun Af_ha!riutz:n rood poor . r oyrcn elon1,atum Af{;ha!!i;:tari good poor :,ropyr.9n intcrmidium USA not peeled Good A {:ropyron omitii USA poor poor Alopccuruc i)ratenuio USA not Needed failed Arrhonathorun elatius Turkey fair failed frooua inormic FAO :led poor ?sr'muo incrraio USA not uoelcd. poor hrumuc cp. Aî,'!a,:in not coolod poor Dactylic ;lomorata FAO fair poor L:.ctlie _lomorata USA not needed failed 31ymns junceuc Afr;h-..rirtan f :riled failed Fectuc% arundinacoa FAO fair poor Loliun perenne Fí10 fair poor :'!a1::rio arundinncea FAO poor poor P'al'.ria arundinacca USA not :,ceded f ailed 1"t?:laric aruvlinacoa Turk -y fair failed. P'ialr:rio tuberoca I''AO poor rood P'::,laric tuberoo. Turk .v poor fair Pluu hratonuc FAO fair poor '."Ileum pratenoc Turkey poor failed Pou pratonni ;j FAO fair fair Pou pr<^.tor!oio USA poor poor Lu,;po']eza cunoata Local very good. fair Lotus; cori!iculr tuc FAO poor poor Lotus corniculatuo Turkey poor fair fodica,^:o arborea Israel nk_.t eeedod failed ale licaGo eativn FAO fair poor i:oúicago oativa Turkey f.rir good ilolilotue alba FAO good ver :,' r,00fl
i.{lilotua officinalio FAO good Good. Onobrychio ::ativa FAo failed. good Qn hrychio oativa Turkey failed. good 0!!obr.ychio laxiflara Af;raniotan not needed. fair Trifoli.um Ilybrilurn FAO poor poor Trifoliunr hybridurn Turku.y poor poor Trifolinm pratonoe FAO poor poor Trifoliu, pratcnoo Turkey poor poor Trii'uliuru moons i: FAO poor poor Trifolium r.,pene Turkey poor poor 3: :nguiuorb.. minor Af: ia.n.iot ;ur good poor U,.nGuiuorba minor FAO good poor -48-
Table 16 - List of the Range plants seeded forscreening_trials to the Badgah area in 1972 Fall and 1973 Spring
Date of check 711.8.73 Date of seeding and degree ofsuccess Name of species Origin 26.11.1972 11.4.1973
A"rop.yron cristatu,:i Afgh,aniu.tan good poor A,,rop.yron oloni atum Afr'ia.niutan very good good A,!-rupyron iuturmcdium USA not needed good ¡ rod Iron uoitii USA not seeded failed Alopecurus pratensie USA not no. 'iod failed Arrhenathorum olatiun Turkey poor failed Bromus inermis" USA not .,ouded failed L.romuu inormis FAO good poor Bronus gip. Af aniutan not soo ed failed . )act.ylis glomcr-rta FAO ,00d failed Lactylis rlomerata USA not seeded. failed Thimue junceuo Afhanistan failed failed P.:str..ca arundinacea FAO rood poor Loliur,i porcino FAO Good. poor Piialarin arundinacea FAO fair failod I'h alaris arundinacea USA not seeded failed Ph'a1rio arund.inacoa T'urko; fair failed Piialarir; tuberosa FAO good poor I'sialaris tuborosa Turkey good poor Fhl,um pratenuo FAO fair failId F'slaum pratonee Turkey ;Nod fa.ilud Lospo':oza, ctuioat,o, Local very good poor Lotus uorlioulatuu FAO poor poor Lotus corniculatuo Turkel; poor poor Aedica,o arborea Israel not se. ded failed Ilodicago cativa FAO poor good r. odicc o sativa Turks:{ fair very rood iiolilotus alba FAO very good Lair ilolilotus officinalis FAO good fair Onobrychic nativa FAO rood, fair O::.obrycsiis sativo. Turkey good poor Onobrychis to :ciflora Af,,hanintan not seeded poor Trifolium hybríd.un FAO poor poor Trifolium hybridum Turkey poor failed Trifolium pratonno FAO poor failed Trifolium pratonno Turkey poor poor Trifolium reports FAO poor fair '.rifoliuni repone Turkey failed poor SanGuiuorba minor Af,haniotan good poor ;;:.a:u;uieorba minor FAO good poor -49-
After seeding some 75 kg Amonium nitrate (Urea) is broadcast on both Spring seeding and Fall seeding area.
According to the judgements made in August 1973, the results, obtained through these trials, can be considered as excellent, as a whole. Only the performance of Medicago in Fall seeding was low and the establishment of grass in Spring seeding completely failed. There was not much difference between Spring and Fall seeding of Sanguisorba.
This fact is confirmed by screening seeding as well.
Therefore legumes should be seeded early Spring and grass in Fall, in the region.
.Row seeding was more successful than broadcast seeding. It is believed that the reason to this is shallow seeding depth in broadcast seeding. Therefore a rather deep seeding is suggested for the region.
These seeding practices demonstrated to the people, at the same time, the potential of the brush lands in producing forage, that they are considering nonproductive land. It is hoped that such areas will be seeded to forage planta by the people wheneversome help is given to them.
Although the area of such brush land is not big, they have the potential of increasing forage yield considerably.
5. MAIN CURRENT PROBLEMS OF THE REGION RELATED TO FOREST AND RANGE MANAGEMENT
Field survey and the evaluation of the data collected by survey, reveals the ., prevalence of the following major problems in the region, related to forest andrange development and management programmes.
i. Overcrowded human population in relation to agricultural land. ii. Shortage of employment to assimilate man power that cannot be used in agriculture. iii. Overcrowded low producing livestock in relation to forage production capacity of the region. iv. Shortage of forage. v. Lack of knowledge on natural resource management. vi. As a combined consequence of these problems a descending trend of natural resources.
5.1 Overcrowded human population
The population density in the area is 571 persons per km2. This is double of average population density of the country. Rough topography and other physical charac- teristics of the land confine the amount of agricultural land toa low level. In spite of double cropping the production cannot meet the need for subsistenceof existing population.
5.2 Suggested solution
.,,.. Perhaps one solution to this problem is to create empibyment possibility for the people whq cannot be accommodated in agriculture, this alternative will bediscussed later. Next alternative to intensify the agriculture in order to,increase production and employment. At the first glance the agriculture of the region'seemsto be very iptensivev The land is irrigated, fertilized. and cropped twice ina year, to wheat for wint4,.to corn or rice for summer. But the expert is of opinion that there issome more that can be done, such as adoption of more productive varieties andeven change the crop complete- ly; for example potatoes and poanute should be tested. Horticulture, especially vine- yards promise some potentials. There are plenty of non -productive trees aroundhouses used for forage. If mime vine, are planted. in between and hangedon these trees, it is possible to get high graphe yield without any extra lancirequirement. At the present time, this is being practised. in some areas, butas the people do not know how to care, the production is not satisfactory. Improvement of poultry and bee keeping isanother field which can increase the family earnings.
5.3 Shortage of employment
The surveys, carried. out by the expert, haverevealed that there are 6558 work months unemployed work power in the area. Shortage of employment coupled with the shortage of agricultural land, gives rise to the clearingforest land for cultivation and to the increase of livestock population. These practices bring baout destruction of forest and deterioration of natural grazing lands.
During the surveys, it has been recorded thatsome families are emigrating from the area to provide employment and subsistence.It is believed that this does not solve the problem but changes its location. Because all over the country theemploy- ment possibilities are short, the real solutionof the problem is by creating employ- ment in the region.
5.4 Solution
It is figured out by the expert that 70.3% of.thearea is covered by forests and 56.9; with productive coniferous forests. It is certain that these landsoffer high employment potential.
Nedialkov (6) estimated. 25 000 000 Afs. annualgross income from these forests, 10 000 000 out of this figure is estimatedas expenditure which will be paid for employ- ment. That means 1 479 Afs. per capita, which is more than thehalf of current annual gross income per capita in the region. On the other hand, this amount (10 000000 Afe.) corresponds to 11 111 working months, with the presentwage standards (30 Afe. per day), this employment capacity is double of thecurrent work requirement (6 558 in the region. work months) This fact suggests that exploitation of theforests resources of the region offers a high potential of creating employment which is most desirable forthe region and country.
5.5 Overcrowded animal jpulatiorr
As it has been referred in paragraph 3.7 animalpopulation is double of,the amount that existing forage resources can properlyfeed.. In other. ords animal population existing. at present time, in the regionare half fed. On account of this fact live- stock production is too low, as it has been referred in paragraph 3.8. The people ignore the feeding and endeavour to increase thenumber of livestock iv order to meet their need. This practice gives way to further heavy grazingand deterioration on natural grazing lands and further shortage of forage.
5.6 Solution
There are several measures that have to be appliedin combination to reach a tuccessfnl solution. ,These are: - 51 -
(a) Reduction ofthe number of animals. (b) Increase theproductivity of animals through better animal husbandry practices. (o) Increase theforage by improved grazing management and by forage crop cultivation. This subject will be dealt with on paragraph 5.7.
5.6.1 Reduction of the livestock number:
This is a difficult work indeed but not impossible, provided that persistent long term programmes are formulated and implemented with patience and perseverance.
Control of forest grazing in European countries and United States, elimination of goats'in Cyprus are proofs of these facts.
The experience gained in these countries suggests that the first step of reducing the number of animals is to check the increase by establishing sound records of existing animals and issuing grazing permission and not allowing any increase beyond registered amount. When this practice is accustomed to, the second step can be attempted. At second stage several alternatives can be employed by negotiating the owners. It is expected that if better employment possibilities are granted to big flock holders,they can voluntarily sell their flocks out.
This approach can be applied in Tchapadara. To achieve this, a record has to be established for existing animals and grazing permission should be issued for eachowner.
To make grazing permission effective, the area has to be divided into grazing allotments and grazing permission should be based on these allotments.
This practice should be implemented over the next five years in thearea. Strict attention should be paid that this work is implemented in the field and not keptinforma- lity. After this practice become accustomed to, by local people, the second stepcan be attempted to reduce the number by negotiating with owners.
As it has been discussed in paragraph 3.4.2., at present time total number of goats in the region is 8 269 and owned by 759 people. Out of this amount 4 445 goats are owned by 87 persons, and the size of each flock is over 20. If only these 87 persons are offered better employment they will agree to reduce thei,' flock bélow 20 if not sell out. This will bring about 50% reduction in goat population and will solve the majority of the problem.
5.6.2 Increase the productivity of animals through better animal husbandry practices:
As it has been discussed in paragraph 3.8., the animal production in the region is too low. One of the reason to this, is poor animal breeds. Although improving the feeding conditions will help a great extent to increase the productivity ofthe animals, it is certain that a further increase can be provided by improving existing breeds by natural selection and crossing.
5.6.3 Solution:
It is known that in some breeds there are some animals that producemore than the others and this property is heired by its progeny. Again it is known that by crossing the native breeds with adapted high yielding breeds, brings aboutnew high yielding breeds. These facts should be demonstrated to the people and necessary assistance should be given them to this end.
The bull coming from high yielding cows should be searched and registered forthe use of people. Some Bull Stations should be set up at Tohambarak, Badgah and Katak, -52-
which are big villages of the region, andsome bulls from Kandahari or Kunari Breeds should be provided.
It is certain that creation of animal health and disease control facilitiesin the area is prerequisite for improved animal husbandry. It is essential thatone animal health and disease control technician should be appointed to Batgah to givenecessary help and advise to the livestock owners.
5.7 Shortage of forage
Shortage of forage gives rise tomany other problems and its solution imposes great difficulties. As it is discussed before, in spite ofdouble cropping with cereals, the agricultural lands are far fromproviding the amount necessary subsistence of local people. for the Therefore, any programme having theobjective of growing forage crops on agricultural lands is notpromising.Therefore some other solution has to be searched.
5.8 Solution
The measures to be helpful in solvingthis major problem are s
(a) Increasing the forage yield on naturalgrazing lands by implementing range improvement programmes and bettermanagement systems. (b) Seeding Artemisia brush land to highproducing forage crops. (c) Saving forage by better husbandrymanagement. (d) Establishing forage reserves foremergencies and purchasing feed. concentrate
5.8.1 Increasing the forage production on natural grazing land by implementingrange improvemeht programmes and bettermanagement systems:
As it has been discussed in paragraphs 3.6 and 3.7, many naturalgrazing lands are covered by forest that can only be subjectto better grazing management, pastures are too steep to render some open range improvement programmes possible,and still others too remote and their potentialsare rather low to compensate expensive programmes. range improvement
5.8.2 Solution:
Implementation of planned grazing systemcan help to increase range productivity considerably. Therefore by applying grazing allotment system and by issuinggrazing permission a better controlled grazingsystem should be implemented.
In Alpine pastures, in addition tocontrolled grazing, the dunk piled corrals should be carried to the flat around the parts of the range and spread;even during this fertilization some seeds od adaptedspecies can be sown.
One night bedding system should be employed in the period where animalsdo not need shelter, in order to fertilize therange in Alpine zone.
5.8.3 Seeding Artemisia brush land into highproducing species:
Studies referred to paragraph 4 suggestthat the areas covered with brush could successfully be seeded into Artemisia high yielding forage plants,provided that erosion control measures are applied toprevent erosion. -53-
There are some 112 ha. of such lands in the region. These lands are generally located around villages. The villager should be trainedon the possibility and advan- tages of seeding this land into high producing foragecrops. Necessary technique'., should be demonstrated and assistance should be given. The study referred to paragraph4 can serve as a demonstration area for this purpose.
Trying the best adapted and high yielding exoticspecies should be continued these demonstration areas. on Besides that, the seeds of high yieldingnative species such as, Lespedeza cuneata, Andropogon ischaemum, cymboyogon sp., Aristidasp., should be collected, reproduced and used in reseeding practices in the area. Even these species should be tried in other parts of the country.
Nitrogenous fertilizers and farm yardmanures should be applied on these whenever possible. areas
5.8.4 Saving forage by better animal husbandrymanagement!
The people are generally selling their animals when their forageresources are completely expired and the animals are almost starving. They are deprived ofany notion of management. On account of this fact the forage is fed to the animals thatare supposed to be sold. This is a waste of forage.
5.8.5 Solution:
Solution to this is, by taking intoaccount the forage supplies, to animals proposed to be marketed, decide the at the beginning of theseason and sell them in time without giving way to any forage waste. If this can be achieved, itcertainly provides some forage saving to feed the other animalsbetter.
It is certain that in this stage marketing facilities, such as cooperatives,play an important role. Therefore, it is suggested that marketing encouraged in the area. cooperatives should be
5.8.6 Establishing forage reserves and purchasingconcentrate feed:
The price of forage is changingaccording to the season and weather If some forage reserves conditions. can be established when the forage is cheap,.thiscan provide feed to the animals at the sufficientstandard with a reasonable coast.
At the time that forage is cheap thefinancial potential of the farmers its lowest limit and they cannot is at afford to spend any money foranimal forage.
5.8.7 Solutions
Solution of this problem is establishing credit cooperatives for theanimal raiser.
6. LACK OF KNOWLEDGE ON NATURAL RESOURCEMANAGEMENT
Lack of knowledge is the main bottleneck in all programmes. Perhaps this is a country wide problem and its solution requiresthe implementation of national grammes. However small scale local demonstration pro- and training programmescan be organized in forest and range managementprogrammes. - 55 -
PART III
TRAINING
In order to accomplish training phase ofthe project, a middle level has been inaugurated at Paghman forestry school - Kabul as a part of the "Demonstration andTraining in Forest and Range Improvement" project (FO :SF/AFG/67/515). This school is scheduled to provide two years professional training over high school. All experts of the project, charged with teaching their relevant subject are at this school, throughout theschool year. The location of the school and demonstrationarea were 280 km far from each other; in between is rather difficult and travelling sometines impossible due to highflow or torrents. On account'of thiq situation it has not beenpossible to carryout work the same time. on -the two places at Therefore, the studies of demonstrationarea 'axe fitted into the of the school years. spaces
1. SCHOOL YEARS
School year for the class teachingrun from 1.2.1972 to 29.5.1972 in the year, and from 11.11.1972 to 21.6.1973 in the first second year. Besides class teaching, some practical field training programmes have been carried out from July30, 1972 to September 17, 1972 and from July 7,1973 to August 20, 1973.
2. TEACHING
As it has been referred before, teaching is composed of two part class and practical field teaching. teaching
2.1 Class teaching
During class teaching the expert lectured Range management for twoschool years, six hours a week. The following subjectsare covered;
Definition of Range, Range Management,and different range types, ihe of Afghanistan and its importance rangé area for the country, study ofrange sites, physiology of range plants and its relation to grazing, different degrees ofgrazing and their effect on range, the concept ofrange condition, range trend and their study the range vegetation, judgement, assessment of range yield andgrazing capacity of grazing systems, their advantages range, and disadvantages, rangeimprovement practices (protection, fertilization,reseeding, water conservation, water water development, constructing spreading, animal animal shelters andaccess roads.), establishment of range plants herbarium, study the range plants, preparing range managementplans.
The lecture notes have been translatedinto local language, duplicated tributed to the students. and dis-
2.2 Practical field training
At the beginning it had been proposedthat practical field training combined with the field work of experts, should be but some difficulties urgedthe preparation of separate specialprogrammes for field training of the students.
Under these circumstances, during the firstyear, the expert prepared and -56-
implemented the range management practical training programme between July 30, 1972- September 17, 1972, while he was conducting his field work in Tcha4padara demonstration area.
During this period the following subjects are covered:
(a) To see and become acquainted with different types of range in the field. (b) Observation, different degrees of range uses and their consequences. (c) Collecting, pressing and conserving of range plants. (d) Exeroise the study of range vegetation.
The second year's practical training programme was organized in Kodgai- Paktia, at German Forest Development project area, between July 7, 1973- August 19, 1973. First and second classes took part in this training.The expert took charge of running this training programme from July 7,1973 to July 19, 1973. During this period, the following, practical training programme is applied:
(a) Orientation on organization and settlement of forest and range develop- ment project of German forestry team at Kotgai (1st and 2nd classes). (b) Orientation on forest management and range improvement problems of the region (1st and 2nd classes). (c) Practical work in forest nursery and plantation areas (1st class). (d) Study the rotation applied in forest nurseries to grow tree seedlings and forage plants; crop and forage plants rotation on adjacent private lands (1st class). (e) Study the systematic botany on local plants (1st class). (f)' Study range vegetation and plantcomposition on open ranges (2nd class). (g) Assess the range production and grazing capacity ofopen ranges (2nd class). (h) Assess grazing capacity of a forest range (2nd class). (i) Prepare management plan for an open range (2nd class). (j) Prepare grazing plan for a forest unit compatible with forest management (2nd class).
Through the whole training programme, 14 students from 2nd class thatare expected to graduate very soon are fully trained on all aspects of range management.
According to their schedule, 1st class dit not getany professional course. As the Expert is leaving and his counterpart is not able to lecture the subject,1st class has to graduate without taking any range management courses.
3. COUNTERPART TRAINING
Providing qualified counterparts willing to work in the field has always been a problem in the project. Although the expert had a counterpart, graduated from Faculty of Agriculture, he was rather reluctant in all aspects of thework. However, he translated the lectures in the class and obliged to attend all fieldworks but, as he did not devote himself to the work, he could not gain enough knowledge and experience to carry out either training or any other range managementprogramme by himself. - 57 -
4. OTHERS
The expert was also charged to give the necessary advice and `assistandé,to thee personnel of the existing range management unit.In relation to this work he kept in touch very closely with all personnel of the section and did his best to be helpfulto them, but he could not manage to put into effect his proposals to holda practical course for these personnel to train them to carry out a range survey project.
5. PROPOSALS
The expert is of the opinion that the existing sohool should not be kepton with the existing system of training.
At the present time the school is located at sucha place that the students have no chance to do practical work in forest with the exception of very short periods at the end of school year. There are two disadvantages of this system.
(a) The students would not be able to get enough practical training to carry out their work after they are graduated from thisschool. (b) Class teaching gets the student accustomed to office, work and they do not like to work in the field.
(o) The system that is employed for the section of the students isnot fitting to the speciality of the work. In fact, at the present time they are being selected by examination. Examination gives more chance to the students who are raised in towns, andare not fit to work in remote areas and under difficult conditions.
AB a combination, all of this factor, the graduate of theschool is not expected to have the qualification to accomplish thework that he should. To eliminate all of these disadvantages. (d) School should be moved to a place that makes the technical training possible. Paktia is an ideal location for this and has all the facilities for such a programme. (e) As it is suggested for range technicians, the students to be enrolled to this school should be selected among farmer children whoare graduated from local high schools or agricultural schools. (f) Their training should be in forest rather than in clase. (g) The candidates to be sent abroad for further training should be selected among these graduates who have some successful field experience. -59-
S U M M A R Y
1. The economy of Afghanistan based on pastoral land use system and has to continue to this system as 84.5% of its land can only be used as range land.
2. Animals that mainly depend on these range lands for their feeding provide about 38% of total export earnings.
3. On account of mismanagement, these range lands are severely deteriorated and this condition gave rise to an ever increasing gap between forage production and feed requirements of the country.
4. This situation is resulting in serious losses in livestock population and production amounting to 50 - 100 million US$ annually.
Furthermore, as uncontrolled grazing destroys the protective vegetative cover of the range lands, accelerated erosion exhausting the productivity of the range lands, and serious floods, that damages other productive areas, or populated centres,are commenced everywhere.
6. To remedy this serious situation an effective government agency has to be setup and required programmes be initiated very urgently.
This fact has been foreseen in the range management law, passed longago, but could not be put into effect so far.
8. Ebcperiences exercised so far suggest that, in order to be effective, thisagency should have 4he authority at the level, as all other agencies of the Ministry ofAgriculture and Irrigation.
9. As there is not enough trained local personnel in this field to assist in both training personnel and functioning the new Range Management Service, some foreign expertsare desired.
10. To start with, a range ecologist, a range agronomist anda water development engineer are urgently needed.
11. It is desired that necessary steps should be taken in time to providethese experts through bilateral or international aids.
12. Initial central staff of the agency could be selected among the experiencedand qualified graduates of the Faculty of Agriculture.
13. Provincial staff should'be selected among rural youths who have required qualifications and able to work under difficult field conditions.
14. These personnel should be trained through temporary courses that willbe held at the beginning by foreign experts and undertaken by native staff lateron.
15. At the present time the professional range management personnel have tobe trainedin foreign countries which have similar conditions to Afghanistan.
16. Range Management courses in the Faculty of Agriculture should be expanded tomeet the need of training professional level range management personnel.
17. The candidates to be trained at professional level should be selectedamong successful sub -professional personnel. -60-
18. The following activities should be given priority in Range Management programmes!
- Survey of range resources and set up range allotments, study the range vegetatI.bn types, their composition, carrying capacity and grazing requirements by regions and allotments.
- Collect and reproduce the seeds of native forage plants.
- Conduct trials to introduce high yielding dry resistant exotic forage plants, especially cectus and Atriplex species.
- Initiate some programmes to introduce forage crops production into cash crops rotation.
- Explore the location and capacity of water resources.
- Establish records on the kind, number, size and movements of the flocks by owner base.
- Study the problems and requirements of livestock owners.
- Study the possibilities of establishing, marketing and supplemental feed providing cooperatives.
- Study the ways and means of encouraging animal improvement programmes.
19. Establishement of research organization, a Forage Analysis Laboratory, use of WFP in range improvement programmes, conduct water spreading, animal water development and shelter construction should be considered in later programmes.
20. In future, consideration should be given to add the Range Management Servicea wild life management section.
21. Range demarcation should be conducted by cadastre service.
Developing Tchapadara Demonstration Area
22. By the aid of UNDP /SF and FAO the Government of Afghanistan undertooka project aiming at Demonstration and Training for better use of the land for Forest and Range.
2?. Tchapadara catchment is selected as project area to demonstrai;'é advanced forest and range improvement management practices and train Afghan personnel to extend this work to cover all forest and range lands of the country.
24. The expert carried out necessary survey in 1972 summer to collect required data to prepare proposals to formulate and implement programmes aiming at improvement -and management of natural grazing lands in the area.
25. Tchapadara is a remote part of the country with poor communication facilities, rough topography and difficult natural conditions.
26. Agricultural land, in the area, is short in providing the subsistence of local people and to absorb the whole work potential of these people.
27. There isa high employment desire in the region. Some people are going out for work but most of them stay in the area to raise animals and clear the forest for cultivation.. Allfof these activities bring about an accelerated descend in naturalresources. - 61 -
28. Livestock population is double of the amountthat existing forageresources can support.
29. Heavy grazing and deterioration of natural grazinglands is common everywhere.
30. Animal productivity is too low due to insufficientfeeding and poor animal husbandry practices.
31. There is vast evergreen oak forest offering high potential of providingconsiderable amount of forage and fuel wood, if properlymanaged. 32. This forest area is being destroyed withan ever increasing speed by uncontrolled grazing and lopping.
33. 56.9% of the area is covered with high quality coniferous timberstands. This potential is being decayed in forest or being destroyedby local people.
34. There are considerable areas of Alpine pasture that are being usedunwisely. 35. Some management programmes have to be devised for proper use of thewhole natural resources in the area for the benefit of local peopleand all citizens.
36. A forest management plan is prepared byforest management expert. this plan will provide employment that Implementation of is double of the amountrequired in the area. 37. In order to protect the natural grazing land as well as forest land fromthe ill effects of grazing, animal husbandry practices have to be improved by decreasingthe livestook number upgrading the existing breed,increasing forage and using existing a more effective way. forage in
38. In order to establish proper use principles on natural grazing lands,grazing allotment system should be devised and grazingpermission should be issued. 39. In order to increase forage production, programmes aiming át carrying outrange reseeding on sage brush lands, shouldbe encouraged by demonstration and financial aid. and by technical
40. In Alpine region, in addition toproper grazing, some fertilizing practices conducted, some water improvement and should be animal shelter programmes must becarried out. 41. In addition to country wide education and extension programmes,some local demonstra- tion and training programmes shouldbe carried out on all fields management. of natural resource
42. Paghman middle level forestry school isnot expected to train right by forest service. personnel required Therefore, it should either be givenup or transferred to one of the forest regions that have facilities for more practical training.Kotgai Forest Station is an ideal place for suchtraining.
43. Examination system, to select the studentsto be enrolled in this school changed and local farmer children who should be are graduated from local high schoolsor agricultural schools should be selected.
44. Practical training should be givenmore emphasis.
45. The teaching board of the school shouldbe composed of personnel who the field where they are teaching. are experts in New graduates of Faculty ofAgriculture without having any experience cannotcarry out the teaching work successfully. -62-
46. High level professional personnel should be trained in foreign countries through fellow- ships ans scholarship programmes.
47. Any candidate to be sent abroad for higher training should be selected among the personnel who got this training and have some successful experience in service.
Dr. O. N. ALPAY FAO Range Management E pert - 63 -
R E F E R E N C E S
1. ASIfr1ORTH, V.A. 1971. Sectorial planning study of AfghanAgriculture, Afghan livestock sector. Asian Development Bank.
2. F.A.O. 1972. Regional study of animal husbandryproduction and range management in the Near Eastand FAO's policies and plans for promotingthe animal industry. FAO, Rome -Cairo 1972.
3. HERMAN, N.M., J. ZILLHARDT, Recueil de données des Stations Météorologiques P. LALANDE. 1971. de l'Afghanistan, imprimé par l'Institutde Météorologie. Kabul 1971.
4. IRMAK, ASAF, 1970. Orman Ekolojisi (Forest Ecology), Istanbul Universitesi Orman FakU].tesi, No. 1650/149. Istanbul 1970.
5. KERNIK, M.O. 1971. Final report on Range Managementand livestock Husbandry in the Pilot Zone of theCaspian Forestry Department Project. Teheran 1971.
6. NEDIALKOV, S.T. 1973. Plan d'amenagement de la foret Tchapadara. Kabul 1973.
6b. NEDIALKOV, S.T. 1973. Etude sur la Classification Ecologiquede la Végétation Ligneuse Naturelleen Afghanistan. Kabul 1973.
7. KORAM, A.A. 1972. Request to the UN /FAO World FoodProgramme for Assistance in a Project for Economioand
Social Development, Afghani stan. - The Ministry of Planning óf Afghanist an.
8. Li; HOUEROU, H.N. 1972. Report on improvement of the Rangelands and related problems in Northern Somalia. FAO -Rome 1972.
9. PABOT, H. 1959. Report to the Government of Afghanistanon the Amelioration of Natural Pastures. FAO -Rome 1959.
10. PRAT, D.J. 1972. A plan for a National Range Servicefor Somalia. FAO -Rome 1972.
11. SEMPLE, A.T. 1954. Some conditions and problems ofRange Improvement and Livestock Production in NorthernAfghanistan.
12. TONCHEV, V.G. 1969. Final Report to the Royal Ministryof Agriculture, and Irrigation of Afghanistanon Research, Improvement and Management of theRanges in Afghanistan. Kabul 1969. -65-
ANNEX I BILL ON PASTURE LANDS
CHAPTER Ii GENERAL REGULATIONS
1. The present law aims at preserving pasture landsand improving their utilization.
2. There is called pasture land any steppe, hill,mountain slópe, marsh, riverbank or forest Sector covered with vegetation or natural plantsgrazed by animals.
3. Pasture lands are considered to be State property. Users may dispose of them in accordance with the regulations of the present law.
4. Pasture lands are defined and their boundariesmarked by an official mission. The Government is bound to entrusta mission with boundary -marking two months after the issue of the law, and to sendsuch a mission to the provinces.
5. Disputes arising from the marking of boundarieswill be settled according to the present law, the land survey regulationsand the assignment and judicial law. organization
CHAPTER IIs PROTECTION OF PASTURE LANDS
6. It is forbidden to sell, to buyor to let pasture lands.
7. The State may neither sellnor let pasture lands in view of extending farming activities or for any other purpose except forpublic use schemes.
8. It is forbidden to set fire to pasturelands. In case a fire is discovered in pasture lands, the local population and thepublic organizations are bound to participate in the fight against the fire byall available means. 9. It is forbidden to turn pasture lands into farm lands or to alter theirboundaries. If proved that, prior to the issue of the present law, a person has turnedpasture lands into farm lands, these lands will be taken bank from him legally andreturned to pasture.
10. No one has the right to destroyor use for other purposes the routes, crossing areas, wells and springs used by flocks.
11. The routes, gathering places, wells and springs which have been destroyedor misused before the issue of the present law will be put back at the cattle owners'disposal. 12. The Ministry of Agriculture will take suitableaction to improve andpreserve pasture lands.
13. The Government may, for public interest, expropriate from farm lands waterrights or springs inside or near pasture lands. -66-
CHAPTER III: RIGHTS OF USE IN PASTURE LANDS
14. Rights of use in pasture lands involve grazing permissiononly.
15. Rights vested. prior to the issue of the present laware considered as valid.
16. New rights of use may be granted by decision of the Ministry of Agricultureon a proposal from the provincial assembly.
17. Rights of use may be neither sold nor bought.
18. It is forbidden to graze goats and camels in pasturelands inside forests.
CHAPTER IV i PENALTIES
19. Anyone having sold or bought pasture lands will have to make restitution andmoreover will be sentenced to 10 to 20 days' jail and fined 500 to 1,000 Afghanisper jerib. 20. Any official having sold or let pasture lands will be sentenced and finedaccordingly. 21. Anyone having shifted the boundaries of thepasture lands or turned the latter farm lands will have to make restitution into and moreover will be sentenced to20 to 40 days' jail and fined 1,000 to 2,000Afghanis per jerib.
22. Anyone having suppressed the routes or used them for other purposes will haveto make restitution according to Article 11 and,moreover, will be sentenced to 20 to 40 days' jail and fined 1,000 to 2,000Afghanis.
23. Anyone having suppressed or used for otherpurposes cattle pens will have to make restitution and, moreover, will be sentenced to 1 to 6 months' jail and fined to 6,000 Afghanis. 3,000
24. Anyone having set fire to pasture landson purpose will be sentenced to 2 to 5 jail and fined 5,000 to 15,000 Afghanis. years'
25. Anyone having grazed goats and camels withina forest will be fined 50 Afghanis 'head for the first time. per If caught again, fine will double,etc.
CHAPTER V: MISCELLANEOUS REGULATIONS
26. The Government is bound to setup efficient administration in view of improving pasture lands. preserving and
27. Principles not stated clearly herebyare submitted to existing laws.
28. The present law will come into forceas soon as published in the Gazette. -67-
ANNEX II Annual precipitation and its distribution throughout the year in Afghanistan» From Herman and others
J F 11 A 11 J J A S O N D Tot al
1. B^01an 30 40 62 62 30 - - - - 9 24 23 280 510 m .. Bn,r.:i;an 12 11 12 29 49 2 0.5 0 0 0 11 12 148 2!, 50 - Bnct 21 16 21 13 3 0 0 0.1 0 0.1 3 12 90 780 q. C!iakcharan 61 21 20 6 8 1 Tr 0 0 14 12 13 161 2230
5. I' isab,id. 43 80 101 99 38 8 11 1 2 28 29 31 521 1200' C. i'arah 13 24 13 8 2 tr 0 tr tr tr 3 9 77 (.67 7. c,c:i_.iz 33 60 63 53 24 5 13 8 1 6 10 34 310 2350 ;. cha.,-,ni 41 45 67 60 24 2 1% 1 tr 1 11 26 292 21ii3 . (''lrlmin 33 30 44 50 20 tr 2 0 tr 3 7 28 222
17. orát 45 35 413 32 ii tr 0 0 tr 1 9 33 211
!)li/,' il. 52 36 109 142 35 1 3 1 3 9 22 3G 499 it3ó1-Saraj 12. J n.lalabad 19 22 36 33 13 1 6 2 3 7 8 16 171 '-r 0 13. 1a.bu1 31 55 65 94 23 2 7 2 1 3 18 23 324 1791 1,,.Y,.,.1t 34 64 45 25 1 0 0 5 o 2 12 36 224. 15u5 lij. I.anl.:!Dar 33 34 21 18 1 0 tr 0 tr 1 4 24. 141 1010 16. Karizimir 41 60 99 121 31 3 7 1 3 7 27 30 433 1)05 t7. I:hor,t 15 39 55 76 40 17 82 52 33 7 10 22 440 1146 16. Kunduz 39 55 75 67 41 0.2 2 0.4. 0.1 8 26 36 350 433 l'?. La1 24 44 43 68 37 4 tr 0 tr 16 25 21 282 2800 ''). Lo+r,:r 32 22 40 45 17, 1 3 tr 0 6 11 18 1955 21. ii.:iraana 48 56 90 68 34 2 1 tr tr 10 28 35 372 115 22. i:azari-Sharif 33 26 40 33 12 2 0 tr 0 5 16 23 190 370 23. liokur 18 32 34 39 9 tr 2 3 0 4 4 45 190 2.')00 24. Nord Salang 96 168 215 225 139 9 3366 9 2 7 32 76 113 1121 25. Okal: 40 12 12 16 0 0 2 0 0 1 20 3136 7 110
26. Pancman 60 43 84. 67 26 2 14 2114 1 7 10 35 4.6 395 27. PanJ'ab 29 57 35 83 22 1 1 0 0 23 20 27 27(10 293 23. Qalis 46 39 66 48 28 0.3 1280 1 0 2 23 22 43 313 29. 2hahr<.k 77 52 59 47 32 2 0 0 0 9 21 48 347 2325 30. ihobirr;han 38 39 41 33 7 0 tr 0 tr 12 360 15 29 214 31. Sud-Salang 183 109 229 237 85 5 5 1 3 20' 73 1151115 3172- 97 79 105 32. Wan 150 110 4 5 0 5 26 41 33 655
33.' Zarang (470) 13 tr 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 ",1 3 0' 33 Total 1376716'3 20785207/1009j74.5/199.5j79.5770.1730446571057/10737 I:o:ai 41.7 49t6 63.0 66.0 30.6 2.3 5.8 2.4 2.1 9.2 19.9 32.0 325.4