The Ghurian District (Ghoryan District)
is an Afghan
administrative district
Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...
(Wuleswali) in far western
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
in western
Herat Province
Herat ( Persian: ) is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, located in the north-western part of the country. Together with Badghis, Farah, and Ghor provinces, it makes up the north-western region of Afghanistan. Its primary city a ...
. The district is bordered by
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
to the west and northwest. It is then bordered by other districts of Herat,
Kohsan District in the north,
Zendeh Jan District to the east, and
Adraskan District to the south. The
Hari River flows through the northeastern end of the district. The border with Iran is marshy. The population is 85,900 (est. 2012)
and the district center is the city of
Ghurian
Ghurian (غوريان; Ghūrīān, Ghoryan, Ġūrīān) is a city and the administrative center of Ghurian District in Herat Province, Afghanistan. It is 790 m high with a population of more than 54,000 people. It is situated south of the Hari Ri ...
.
Economy
After the 1992 fall of the Mohammad Najibullah, Najibullah government, and with the final withdrawal of Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Soviet military aid, Iran began repatriating Afghan refugees. Many refugees who returned to Ghurian after working as migrants in Iran's saffron industry came with corms and the skills to grow and produce saffron. The United Nations, the World Bank, and later governments supported growing saffron as a crop that is economically competitive with opium poppy, opium poppies and, importantly for the arid west, also requires less water than wheat growing. Ghurian farmers led in bringing a small but viable saffron trade to Herat Province.
World Bank, Saffron as an alternative to opium poppies
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References
External links
Districts of Herat Province
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