22 March 2011 – Skiing competitions and snow races are underway today in the Koshak Valley in Bamyan where the province is wrapping up its annual Nowruz festival.

Hundreds of residents yesterday celebrated the start of Afghan year 1390 and the first day of spring by lighting the mountainside Buddha caverns.

During the day, families visited their ancestors’ graves then motored and trekked in droves to the now regular locale to listen to a full afternoon of local music at the Third Bamyan Nawruz Festival.

Co-organized by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), provincial governor’s office and the provincial Department of Culture and Information, the festival also featured a handicrafts exhibition in the courtyard in front of the Buddha niche, plus a caravan to the site of the ceremonies.

Since the day is the official start of the planting season, provincial officials met with farmers at the Boys High School to show them how to operate “garden tractors.”

In an effort to start mechanized agriculture in the province, a hundred tractors will be distributed to farmers in the province along with improved fertilizers, said Atayee, the head of the Provincial Department of Agriculture.
The provincial government also plans to construct 350 potato storage facilities and establish a number of nurseries and fruit gardens, among other plans, Atayee said.

To further green Afghanistan’s greenest province, the provincial agriculture head called on each Bamyani to plant two trees.

By UNAMA Central Highlands Region