No HOPE NO GAIN:  Saeedullah, a local greenhouse owner, lives in Toqoz Darak villages of Qorghan district. Before he joins as beneficiary to the program, he was working long days on his low productive land. His income from his land was never enough to survive and feed his family.

“I was seeking how to increase productivity of my lands and how could I learn skill to get more income”, said Saeedullah. He further added that after lots of search, I could not find the way to use affectively my land and was not able to use improved seeds. This sense of continuous pessimism and hopelessness broke me to ground. 

One day I was informed through CDC regarding COAR/NCA enterprise development program and I found it very close to what I was looking for. I applied to join the program. After fulfilling the selection criteria, I have been selected for the program.  I Believe in myself NOW: Up on joining the program, Saeedullah immediately participated in capacity building training, particularly technical training of cultivations, and business skill training. “I earned knowledge how to cultivate, in new methods, watering the greenhouse, keep them in the farm and how to harvest and when and which season is right time for cultivations” added Saeedullah.  In addition, Saeedullah received training on business skill and marketing techniques and sales, a value added to his skills. In the past Saeedullah was not able to simply holding his agriculture products to the nearest shops and was not able to negotiate on price. “Now I know how to use greenhouse and how to build it and how to cultivate seasonal vegetables”, Saeedullah elaborated. “Now I can easily run this enterprises and work with group members as well”, Said saeedullah

I see my life green now:  Saeedullah, under COAR/NCA enterprise program runs greenhouse with size of 3.25*9*54 square meter in his village, close to his family.  “One of the interesting things that we learned from COAR/NCA was drop watering, which is very crucial in Faryab with shortages of water and salty water. We decreased the water use 60% and learned to make such things in all farms if we face water shortage,” added Saeedullah, watching happily towards his beautiful greenhouse.

Smiling with big hope, Saeedullah explained: “We cultivated for the first time and harvested jointly with team members and sold the product to Andkhoy market and it was so exciting for us, seeing ourselves empowered and having cash in hand.  For the first time, we sold around 2500 kg cucumbers to the market, although it was not our expectations but we earned around 46430 AFN with net profits of 38000 FN”.  “A broken man with no hope, today seem a market player and has cash in hand.  Wonderful! thank you COAR/NAC for the magic you did”, Said Saeedullah