Opportunities and Challenges to Afghanistan's Self-sufficiency in Livestock Production Sector

Afghanistan is an agricultural country where livestock is the main source of income for most of the people. Although hundreds of thousands of metric tons of livestock products are produced, large amounts of animal products are still imported to the country. Therefore, a cross-sectional study was conducted to identify the opportunities and challenges confronting Afghanistan's self-sufficiency in livestock products. The data were collected from 48 key professionals by semi-structured interviews using a pre-designed questionnaire. More than 52% of the respondents hold bachelor's/DVM degrees, while the rest have master's (35.4%) and PhD (12.5%) degrees in veterinary (72.1%) and animal science (27.9%) fields. About 80% of the respondents believed that Afghanistan has sufficient capacity to become self-sufficient in the animal products sector. At the same time, only half of them thought that Afghanistan is moving on the right track towards self-sufficiency in animal production. Destruction of pastures (95.7% ), neighboring countries' interventions in the market (95.1%) and importation of low-quality animal products (89.4%), insufficient scientific research projects (84.8%) and funds (84.5%) in the animal health and production sector, lack of proper packaging (87.2%) and suitable domestic market (80%) for animal products, traditional husbandry system (83.3%), shortage of concentrated feeds (78.3%) and excessive paperwork for the investors (69.6%) are the main challenges in front of self-sufficiency in animal products. The results of this study could help policymakers prioritize the animal health and production sector and adjust existing policies regarding animal products to meet the country's needs and accepted standards.