Abstract
This paper attempts to explain why Afghanistan's exceptional dependence on wheat has produced one of the world's most severe food crises, as the crop's dietary centrality collides with environmental stress, political upheaval, and shifting agricultural systems. The FAO projects that 17.4 million people - roughly 40 percent of the population - will experience acute food insecurity in 2026; wheat supplies up to 57 percent of caloric intake, making this dependence a profound source of vulnerability. Examining wheat through culinary, climatic, political, and agricultural lenses, the paper shows that water lies at the heart of the crisis. Climate change is reducing snowpack, river discharge, and precipitation across Afghanistan's five transboundary river basins, undermining both irrigated and rain-fed cultivation, while decades of war have damaged irrigation infrastructure and dismantled the customary water-governance institutions that once distributed water more equitably between upstream and downstream communities. These inequities have intensified under Taliban rule, which has deepened economic isolation, disrupted aid, and reshaped agricultural decision-making. The paper contends that, in a country where most farmers grow wheat for subsistence, climate resilience and water adaptation may matter more than maximizing yield, and that traditional Afghan landraces - which suffer lower drought-related losses than modern cultivars - should be incorporated into breeding strategies for increasingly water-sensitive environments. Securing Afghanistan's food future depends on equitable, climate-resilient water management as much as on production itself.
Recommended Citation
Alkaissy, Karam Mr.
(2026)
"Wheat, War, and Water: The Making of Food Insecurity in Afghanistan,"
RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences: Vol. 18:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/rurals/vol18/iss1/1