{"book":"adl0980","page":30,"text":"are under consideration for forestry,\nplantations, horticulture, veterinary and\nquarantine. The Bills and projects will\nbecome law after they have been approved\nby the Council of Ministers and ratified\nin both Houses of Parliament.\nThe Department of Plant Preservation:\nThe Department of Plant Preservation\ntook a number of important steps to\nprotect crops against various insects\nwhich cause considerable damage. Scores\nof combat squads were sent to various\nprovinces to observe the symptoms of\nplant diseases and collect the insects for\nlaboratory experiments. These insects\nwere preserved in the growing collection\nof the Department, which means, of\ncourse, that most research can now be\ndone on the spot.\nThe Department carried out a number\nof experiments on local and Indian\nstrains of sugarcane and discovered that\nthe Indian variety had been more resistant\nto cold and yielded double that of the\nlocal sugarcane. The Ministry has now\nimported a certain amount of Indian\nsugarcane and distributed it among some\nfarmers in Nangarhar Province. Results\nhave been very encouraging according to\nlaboratory of the Sugar Refinery in\nJalalabad.\nThe combat squads of the Department\nsprayed apple orchards in Karizmir\nagainst a certain disease caused by an\ninsect. This greatly improved the condi-\ntion of the crop. The vineyards in\nKohdaman were sprayed against disease\nand 71,744 vine trees were protected. In\nMaimana 1,400 kilos of insecticide were\nused to make the wheat grain immune to\na disease which causes shrinkage.\nThe laboratory of the Department of\nPlant Preservation carried out a number\nof experiments on rice and maize seeds\nwhich were sent by the International\nOrganisation for Cereal Seeds and experi-\nments on various bacteria were carried\nout in order to develop methods of\nprotection against them. The Department\nalso arranged a course given by an\nF.A.O. expert on ways and means of\ndiagnosing plant disease for the staff of\nvarious laboratories.\nOf the 142 strains of wheat sent to the\nMinistry by the F.A.O. a few yielded\nsatisfactory results. These were reculti-\nvated for the purpose of distribution\namong enterprising farmers. These\nstrains have proved more resistant to\ndiseases and more adaptable to local\nenvironment.\nThe Department of Production:\nThe Department of Agriculture Produc-\ntion is running and supervising a number\nof experimental farms to introduce better\nstrains of plant and new methods of\nfarming and horticulture. At Aliabad\nfarm, thousands of fruit seedlings were\nplanted during the fourth year of the\nPlan and those which had been planted\nalready were grafted and pruned. The\narea of these farms was extended by 53\nacres and the additional land was used\nfor nurseries. At Guzerga experimental\nfarm the area was extended by four acres\nand hundreds of fruit and decorative\nplants were grafted and pruned according\nto modern methods. At Chamean Hozori\nwhere the Independence Celebrations are\nheld in August various flowers and fruit\nseedlings were put by the roadsides and\nin beds. At Gulbagh old poplar trees\nwere replaced by various fruit seedlings\nand mulberry seedlings were planted over\nthree acres for grafting purposes. In\nBagh Bland more foreign strains were\nexperimented with, and the total number\nof plants, including fruit and decorative\nbushes ran into 15,613, and 30,000 vine\nseedlings were planted for grafting pur-\nposes. Graft segments from 18 varieties\nof apricot and cherry trees were imported\nfrom North America for 160 seedlings and\nwhen these bear fruit the seeds will be\nsown again. The result of grafting these\nvarieties with local trees has been remark-\nable as they are very resistant to cold and\ndrought. Likewise, decorative seedlings\nwere imported from India for experiments\nin Nangarhar and eight strains of sugar-\n\n27","chars":3787,"image":"https://storage.googleapis.com/adl-page-images/adl0980/00030.jpg","first_page":1,"last_page":93,"title":"Afghan progress in the fourth year plan","permalink":"https://afghanpress.org/book/adl0980/30","canvas":"https://afghanpress.org/iiif/adl0980/canvas/30","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/books/adl0980/","source_pdf":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/pdf/adl0980_download.pdf","rights":{"image":{"statement":"Public domain. NYU states: \"All works presented on this website are, unless otherwise indicated, in the public domain. The images available on this website may be freely reproduced, distributed and transmitted by anyone for any purpose, commercial or non-commercial.\"","uri":"http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/","holder":"New York University Libraries","source":"https://afghanistandl.nyu.edu/about.html","delivery":"Images are served from a copy mirrored by this project, not from NYU's servers, under the reproduction terms above.","endorsement":"This is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by New York University."},"text":{"statement":"Machine-generated transcription, dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0. No warranty of accuracy: see the provenance block on every page.","uri":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/","holder":"Steps Ventures"}},"provenance":{"text_produced_by":"gemini-3.1-pro-preview","thinking_level":"low","read_completed":"2026-08-09","per_page_confidence":null,"per_page_confidence_note":"Not recorded during the corpus run. No calibrated per-page score exists, and none is estimated here.","human_reviewed":false,"accuracy_context":"Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting.","primary_source":"The page image. The text is an index into it."}}