CLAY NATIONAL GUARD CENTER, Marietta, Ga., Oct. 1, 2012 – Learning about bee keeping, greenhouses, soil preparation, dairy cattle, and other farming techniques may seem out of the ordinary for a military mission to Afghanistan, but not for the Georgia National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Team III.  Guardsmen from the 201st Regional Support Group attended a weeklong training course at the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Ga. hosted by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES).

“We don’t expect to become experts in the agriculture world, but we do hope to leave here with a baseline that will help us in Afghanistan,” said Col. Barry Beach, commander of ADT III. “Most of their agriculture is for sustainment, to keep their families fed, but they are not really knowledgeable in the marketing part, so that is probably where we will focus.”

The Georgia National Guard initially reached out to the UGA CAES when the Georgia Guard’s first ADT was getting ready for Afghanistan. Since that time, UGA has expanded on the training with information sent back from the first ADT, to include hosting the training at ABAC’s Coastal Plain Station, which holds a variety of science in farming all in close proximity.

Soldiers experienced pioneer-era duties during field trips so they could not only gain knowledge and understanding of life on a farm, but also to learn the techniques and strategies of fundamental farming.  The instruction of selecting seeds for basic wheat production, soil science, grape trellising, food safety, watershed management, basic animal nutrition, and animal care could all help create common ground with an Afghan farmer who might be experiencing difficulties.

“It’s been a very intense week. We hit them with a lot of different things, to include livestock, to row crops, to horticultural crops, to giving them a basic knowledge of agriculture,” said Steve Brown, Assistant Dean for Extension with the UGA CAES. “Of course we will also follow up with them even after they are deployed. We hope to be a source of information for them when they run into problems and need technical assistance.”

ADT I learned from their deployment that Afghans are good farmers, but did not have some of the best skills in food preservation or selling crops in the marketplace.

“We [ADT I] focused on a lot of things we take for granted here in the United States, like using root cellars, canning or jarring. But when we showed them [the Afghans] how to conserve and store their crops so they could eat during the winter, their smile and ‘thank you’ let us know we were successful,” said Col. (Ret.) Bill Williams, the commander of ADT I. “We developed very good relationships with the Afghan people, and – because of those relationships – got valuable information back to ADT II and III.”

According to the United States Department of Agriculture and the Foreign Agricultural Service, only 12 percent of Afghanistan’s total land area is arable, and less than 6 percent is currently cultivated, but more than 80 percent of Afghanistan’s population is involved in farming, herding or both. 

The USDA with Georgia’s ADT and U.S. land-grant universities such as UGA are helping Afghanistan revitalize its agricultural sector through a variety of activities aimed to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan government, rebuild agricultural markets, and improve management of natural resources.

“It’s almost like going back in time to a biblical state. A lot of things are done by hand. They certainly know how to farm with what they have, but they are very limited in input items like the quality of their seed, for example,” said Wes Harris, a senior agricultural advisor in Afghanistan. “ADT III will go in and continue that mentoring and training process.”

ADT III will have a similar role to that of ADT II in advising Afghanistan government officials more so than directly interacting with Afghan farmers as the U.S. transitions from an assisting role to empowering the Afghan leadership to support their own farmers.

Story and photos by 1st Lt. Michael Thompson

78th Homeland Response Force

Georgia Army National Guard