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STORY: Father-of-five Baba Karim ekes out a living as a porter at a market in Kabul, transporting people's purchases on his push cart.

He says he used to make up to $5.50 a day before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan back in 2021.

Now he makes a maximum of $2 a day - if he's lucky.

Handouts from the World Food Programme (WFP) have been crucial for his family, which includes three disabled children.

But the WFP has cut rations to another 2 million Afghans this month - and is warning of a "catastrophic" winter if funding runs out.

People like Karim now face a bleak future.

“The WFP have just helped us twice, both times they gave me $48 in cash. The amount wasn’t sufficient, but anyway it was fair enough. After the two times, they told me that I don’t have rations any more.

“I’m so worried about what will happen next, now that the assistance has ended too, I stay awake all night and worry about the future of my children.”

The reduction in rations comes amidst growing alarm over shrinking aid for Afghanistan.

A U.N. humanitarian response plan is only about a quarter funded there - even after the budget was downgraded in the face of funding shortfalls.

WFP funding for food and cash assistance is expected to run out by the end of October.

It says if no funding comes through, people across the country will struggle to get supplies during the harsh winter weather.

Here's WFP Afghanistan Country Director Hsiao-Wei Lee.

“Fifteen million people actually need food assistance, but we have had to cut from March, 13 million people was kind of our winter planning period, and in May we had to reduce 8 million people from assistance, and this month we are having to reduce another 2 million, that means 10 million people that we have served previously and who need assistance are going to bed hungry without any food assistance that WFP is able to provide.”

Afghanistan is emerging from decades of conflict under an internationally isolated Taliban administration.

The group took over when U.S.-backed forces pulled out in 2021.

Now, around three-quarters of the country's people need humanitarian aid.

Development assistance that for years formed the backbone of government finances has been cut.

The Taliban is also subject to sanctions, and central bank assets abroad have been frozen.

Restrictions by the Taliban on women, which has stopped many from being allowed to work, are an obstacle to formal recognition.

It's put off donors, many of whom have turned their attention to other humanitarian crises.

Lee says the WFP needs $1 billion in funding to provide enough cash for aid and projects between now until next March.