The Taliban’s deputy chief minister in a statement on Monday said that they will grant five-year tax exemptions to companies and individuals who invest in cold storage facilities, in a bid to reduce post-harvest losses and support farmers.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s deputy chief minister for economic affairs, said at a meeting, that the move is aimed at preventing financial losses for farmers and spoilage of agricultural products.
According to the statement, Baradar also approved a plan to build cold storage and a processing plant on land belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock in Ghazni province.
Farmers across Afghanistan have long complained about limited support from authorities. They say a lack of storage facilities, combined with weak domestic markets, has forced them to sell crops at low prices that fail to cover their planting costs.
“The expenses we make during cultivation are not recovered at harvest time because prices are low and there are no proper markets,” one farmer said.
A report by Moore Global, an agriculture monitoring group, said Afghanistan currently has 3,164 cold storage units nationwide with a combined capacity of more than 120,000 tons of produce. Of these, 2,923 units are active.
Analysts say the capacity remains insufficient compared with the country’s agricultural production, leaving farmers vulnerable to significant losses.
