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In northern Afghanistan civilians struggling to cope with the effects of the decades-old conflict have been made even more vulnerable by harsh winter weather and a severe drought that has led to crop failure. Around 280,000 people are suffering the effects of the worst drought in a decade. With no food, no money to buy seeds, and no guarantee it will rain, the outlook for the winter harvest is bleak in an area that relies on rain-fed farming.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Water is the most basic element necessary to sustain life, but less than quarter of all Afghans currently have ready access to it. Less than a third of the population is able to use adequate sanitation facilities, and even fewer have access to improved drinking-water sources.

Agriculture in Afghanistan needs to grow at a minimum of 5 percent a year over the next decade for the country to make a dent in rural poverty and attain food security. While the vast majority of Afghans depend on agriculture for a living, only a little over 10 percent of the country’s harsh and arid terrain is arable. Most of it requires irrigation.

Afghanistan is an agricultural country. Almost eighty percent of its gross domestic product depends on agricultural production. Without proper irrigation, it is difficult, if not impossible, to grow agricultural products. For the last several years, severe drought has damaged crop production and caused an economic recession.

Afghanistan’s beautiful plains and fertile valleys have hosted many kinds of crops — but one crop has repeatedly caused the country and its people immeasurable harm: poppy. Farmers dependent upon their land often turned to poppy cultivation because it brought more revenue than ordinary crops. But opium revenue also brings instability and threatens the country’s security. Farmers said that if they had a viable alternative, they would grow other crops.

Plump and jovial, with a grin running from ear to ear, 35-year-old Nasreem is the owner of a carpet weaving and embroidery business in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.

Long a hot-spot for opium farming, Afghanistan's Helmand province is heading in a new direction thanks to an initiative backed by DFID. Farmers are eschewing opium poppies in favour of the crop that once earned the southern province the title of the "bread basket of Afghanistan".