Common wheat

Wheat is the staple of the Afghan diet – it is used to bake naan, the flatbread served with every meal.

An annual grass growing 0.6–1.2 m tall, with hollow stems and ears made up of spikelets with several flowers, in which the grains ripen. Common wheat grain contains gluten, which makes dough rise and gives light, airy bread. In Afghanistan mainly winter varieties are grown, sown in autumn, both on fields irrigated by canals and underground qanats (karez) and on rain-fed fields known as lalmi. The grain is milled into flour for bread and made into groats and pasta, while the straw is used as fodder.

Significance in the country

Wheat takes up most of Afghanistan’s farmland, and naan baked in clay tandoor ovens forms the main part of the daily diet. Ears of wheat have framed the national emblem both in the republican era and today, and the size of the harvest determines how much grain the country has to import.

Where it grows

Grown throughout the country; the biggest harvests come from the northern provinces (Kunduz, Takhar, Baghlan, Balkh, Faryab), the Herat valley and the irrigated fields of Helmand, while in the central mountains it is grown in narrow valleys and on terraces.

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