Tolo News: 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. 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 [Taliban], it is very difficult for poor people,” said Zekrullah, a farmer. Click here to read more (external link).