UN Food and Agriculture Organisation secretary-general Qu Dongyu will address a summit in Geneva on Monday to highlight Afghanistan's looming humanitarian emergency and call for more international funding, FAO said in a statement.
UN chief Antonio Guterres convened the high-level ministerial summit, which will be held in a hybrid format, according to the statement.
FAO said it is still on the ground since the Taliban's mid-August takeover in Afghanistan, where 14 million people - a third of the population - don't know where their next meal is coming from and one in two need aid.
Worsening the impact of conflict, Afghanistan’s entire agricultural sector is reeling from a severe and ongoing drought that has badly affected 7.3 million people who rely on agriculture and livestock.
Twenty-five out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces are now gripped by drought, FAO said, noting that it has been able to continue operations in 28 out of the 31 provinces where it operates.
The collapse of agriculture in Afghanistan will lead to more malnutrition and displacement amid a deepening humanitarian crisis, as farmers and pastoralists risk losing their livelihoods and having to flee the countryside, adding further pressure to urban and semi-urban areas.
Support for farmers must be scaled up urgently ahead of the fast-approaching winter wheat season, FAO warned, saying that it hopes to help over one million people from farming and livestock-owning families in the next few weeks.
