Why do Afghans grow grapes if there are so many reasons not to? Wine is illegal there; they don’t have many refrigerators to keep grapes fresh; and it’s a hard crop to grow in many ways. But if you lay the grapes out on your rooftop to bake in the sun, you’ll eventually find a reason to grow grapes in Afghanistan.
Raisins are an economically important crop for export to Pakistan and even further, but starting a grape field is risky and expensive for the rural farmer (Lemmon, 2010). Conflict has left many of them displaced or without arable land, materials for trellises, or means of irrigation. Grape vines produce a reliable yearly harvest (important for familial stability) but unfortunately, not until the third growing season. (UC Davis CAES, 2017)
Opium poppy, on the other hand, only takes a year to grow and export for eager foreign markets. The Taliban have seized control of a lot of Afghanistan’s resources to facilitate the poppy trade and make an external income. How long can grape farmers fare competing for land and water with the Taliban? They’ve proven to be a difficult enemy for the most powerful nations on earth.
Paul Robbins theorizes in Political Ecology that social conflict is driven by scarcity of resources. When one group can use political control to divert scarce resources from another to themselves, the environment problem has become “politicized”. On the other hand, violent conflict is “ecologized” by making changes to how environmental resources are used. (Robbins, pg 200)
Want to find peace and stability in Afghanistan? Look beyond counterinsurgency and work on agriculture and environmental policy. It’s my prediction that farmers will win the war, and where better to start than grape vines?
References:
Lemmon, G. T. (2010, October 08). Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers. Retrieved June 23, 2017, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/09/business/global/09raisins.html
Robbins, P. (2011). Political ecology. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Afghan Agriculture: Grapes and Raisins. Retrieved July 2, 2017, from http://afghanag.ucdavis.edu/a_horticulture/fruits-trees/grapes
Hello, what an interesting perspective to offer! I had no idea that grapes (and therefore raisins) were grown in Afghanistan, particularly since wine is not drunk there. You provide a great example of how something as seemingly simple as food can be deeply interwoven with issues of violent conflict, international trade, and economics. I don’t know if changing agricultural practices can influence issues of terrorism, but it seems a less lethal option than counterinsurgency.