In the last part of the student presentation about young Afghans’ perceptions of the international response, the focus switched to Afghan agricultural weakness and inefficiency of international aids in fostering development and exportation of legal farmers’ production.

Panelists drew a portrait of a challenging and often misjudged problem.

The first hindrance to foster legal cultivation is the convenience in cultivating opium.

As a matter of facts opium cultivation is still dominating, despite a decrease of 22% in 2009 in comparison to 2008.

However, the total annual income of drug traffic still remains on the high peak of $439m in 2009, even though it has decreased in comparison to $ 730mn in 2008, as Hameed stated in his presentation.

- Opium cultivation is still a big problem to tackle, especially in the south and western regions - argued Javid –  This is because the lack of incentives for farmers to stop cultivating opium. On the other hand, the credit system of drug traffickers supports and enhances the convenience of opium cultivation”.

International aid efforts do not constitute an effective counterweight to the illegal credit system. Funds have always been spread on a long chain of actors from international donors to local NGO partners, as Javid described:

- The agriculture sector is also undervalued on the side of international donors - continued Hameed - Only 3% of international aids were invested in agriculture.

The underestimation of the problem also reflects the fact that cultivated goods could not be involved in an industrial framework of packaging and processing.

- We still do not have goods packaging and processing. - Gran argued - There are no means of conserving goods, because there is no means of keeping them cold. This is the result of insufficient attention on agriculture.

The discussion defined the main problems of the Afghan ailing agricultural system. A maybe well-known portrait, but in most of the cases also thoroughly misjudged.

By Vera Ragone