The Grain and the Chaff : Crop Residues and the Cost of Production of Wheat in Afghanistan in a Farming-System Perspective

This paper presents some results of extensive fieldwork in Afghanistan during the 2001-02 and 2002-03 agricultural years, concerning techniques used for growing wheat, the main staple crop of the country, and provides estimates of technical coefficients, costs of production and margins for each major region and the country as a whole, for both irrigated and rain-fed cultivation. Crop output includes grain, straw and weeds (the latter being customarily used on-farm and sold in the market for various uses), and the costs of production include monetary and non-monetary costs including for instance family labour, manure and draught animals. Data are also provided on farm labour wages and prices of inputs and outputs at various times of the agricultural year and across all regions