ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has made an appeal for $10 million to support farmers and their families in Afghanistan, UN officials said here on Friday.

Speaking at a news conference, United Nations Information Centre director Eric Falt said FAO required $10 million to help farmers and refugees to return to their farms and resume food production.

According to a press release, FAO will soon join a UN mission in Kabul to prepare for the return of its staff from Islamabad to Afghanistan.

The autumn wheat sowing, which accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s total cereal production, has been seriously jeopardized by the drought and military actions. Some 85 per cent of the country’s estimated population of 22 million is directly dependent on agriculture.

Since the Sept 11 event, the press release said, commercial food supply and humanitarian assistance had been disrupted, many buildings destroyed and looted and important equipment stolen.

FAO said Afghanistan’s irrigation system was in ruins and agricultural services were virtually non-existent. Thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land had been taken out of production due mainly to lack of irrigation and millions of land mines, it added. “Fruit trees and forests, once a major source of foreign exchange, have virtually disappeared.”

According to FAO, some 100,000 war and drought-affected farm families would receive spring seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming spring planting season provided that funds are made available.