https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/13/un-chief-warns-millions-of-afghans-are-on-verge-of-deathFirst paragraph: "The United Nations chief has warned that millions of Afghans are on the “verge of death”, urging the international community to fund the UN’s $5bn humanitarian appeal, release Afghanistan’s frozen assets and jump-start its banking system to avert economic and social collapse."
My recommendation to leaders beyond help them immediately as ably as you may would be to help establish an agricultural tractor factory there. I once many years ago read one of my
Grandpa's Old Books and in that much older version of the book it described the effects of the introduction of mechanized farming on a large scale. (the publisher's description does not reflect what I remember of it; it was largely economic statistics and explanations of processses and events and not the referenced personal historic accounts so much that I recall)
One thing I found interesting and remembered was this. Initially tractors were supplied to the highest producing and wealthiest trial villages first, in the assumption that it would increase the success already found there. However, returns were less than expected and if I remember correctly less than 10% increase in production. In a trial program, a poor and under producing village was targetted for mechanization. While I don't recall the percentage increase in yield, I believe I remember it being very much more than substantial for the poorer village. Unfortunately I can't locate my copy of the book to find that specific chapter and check the numbers, but it was a substantial enough difference to be remarkable. It's also possible that fertilizer was supplied as well as there was a substantial amount in the book about fertilizer distribution, but I can't remember if that was a factor in the example I gave.
Many manufacturers in countries surrounding Afghanistan seem to produce tractors and sell them in Afghanistan. Here is a completely random example from a quick search.
https://tafetractors.com/afghanistan/Another quick search can't find an Afghanistan located manufacturer. Here is a sad result for example:
https://agriculturecontact.com/companies/agricultural-mechanization/tractors/in/afghanistanIt may simply mean that I did not write the search term correctly to find the result.
Here is a related article that I found from 2018.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/afghanistan/publication/unlocking-potential-of-agriculture-for-afghanistan-growthAfghanistan’s rural economy is experiencing an influx of youth workers into the labor force, increasing the competition for every new job. The rural economy, however, is not yet equipped to absorb all workers into the labor market. As a result, more than 50 percent of rural youth workers are involved in agriculture and livestock, mostly as unpaid family workers.
The female labor force participation rate (women that work for paid income) in rural areas continues to be low at 29 percent, with 60 percent of employed women working in the livestock sector. Four out of five female rural workers are unpaid family workers, compared with only one out of five male workers.
The low share of agricultural income, despite high employment share, is mainly due to limited market participation and the high number of unpaid family workers. Few rural households that own garden plots or raise livestock sell at the market and to earn income. Youth and women constitute a large portion of this unpaid workforce.
From the following 2010 article, it appears Afghanistan in 2010 largely had private tractor owners as contractors for farmers rather than farmers largely owning their own mechanization or having it provided through a community pool.
https://agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/assisting-smallholders-producers-an-innovative-approach/This article supports the approach of private ownership and small contractors in less mechanized places. It says an option for workers displaced or otherwise leaving employment in farming is private tractor ownership and working as a contractor for farmers (relates to the spoiler). However I am unsure if the number of functional tractors in Afghanistan is sufficient or if lack of mechanization is contributing to famine as I haven't found a source for that. I also don't know how much further land could be cultivated with further agricultural mechanization. Here is a document I did find, from the prior millenia oddly
The Agricultural Survey of Afghanistan (1989) by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
http://www.afghandata.org:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/azu/4609/azu_acku_pamphlet_s471_a3_a477_1989_w.pdfIt has some details on mechanization of farming but it is ancient. It would be a useful work to update it I think.
Thus my small suggestion is a tractor factory for affordable but reliable agricultural tractor models, built in Afghanistan, if conditions of mechanization in Afghanistan mean that further mechanization of agriculture would be desirable. If at all possible with plans to switch the lines to electric motors if or when that is feasible in the area, as that seems to be the standard for the future at least until newer tractor engine technologies are invented and spreading. Whether nationalized or private or owned through worker's shares I have no suggestion, having not taken time to study the possibilities of types of capital ownership in Afghanistan.
Here also is an interesting idea that may be of some benefit.
https://agsci.colostate.edu/smallholderagriculture/most-effective-project-enhancing-access-to-contract-mechanization-via-reconditioned-used-tractors/If you look at the craigslist section for tractors for sale in almost any US region you will find some.
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