Baghlan’s Department of Agriculture and Irrigation recently issued 20,000 collection bills to the province’s farmers in order to collect tithes and zakat.
According to department officials, farmers are obligated to pay fifty percent of their tithes and zakat to this department based on the distributed documents..
“We collect half a tithe. If someone harvests 700kg wheat, 70kg is the tithe. We take half of it, that is 35 kg,” said Nematullah, head of the Agriculture and Irrigation Department of Baghlan province.
Tithing, in the case of agriculture, means giving 10 percent of your yield.
However, in reaction to the Department of Agriculture’s decision, farmers in Baghlan province said that the drought in recent years have caused them enormous losses, making it difficult for them to pay significant tithes and zakat.
“We are the farmers who work hard. It is too difficult for us (the poor people) to pay 50 percent of our yield to the Islamic Emirate, it is very difficult for poor people,” said Zekrullah, a farmer.
“The farmers are the assets of the country. If farmers are provided with the opportunity to grow, they will also benefit other people,” said Habibullah, another farmer.
These concerns arise as figures from the Baghlan directorate of Agriculture and Irrigation show that the Taliban collected up to 89 million Afghanis in tithes and zakat from those areas under its control areas.
