Afghanistan: Wisconsin Guard members build stability, security through farming education

By Air Force Tech. Sgt. Christopher Marasky
Provincial Reconstruction Team Kunar

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan (7/10/12) - Members of the Wisconsin National Guard, who make up the Provincial Reconstruction Team Kunar’s agricultural section, are using projects such as demonstration farms and others at the district and provincial levels to teach Afghans new techniques for farming – an effort helping to bring the government here stability and security through farmlands.

The farmlands, owned by local Afghans, are small plots where the land owners allow the district and provincial leadership to conduct training, as well as try different farming techniques in an effort to spread the training throughout the province.

“These local land owners are opening up their farms to allow people to come and get some hands-on training,” said Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Beron, a Wisconsin Army National Guard member. “We’re showing people a number of different techniques, such as using green houses and intercropping, in order to show them more effective ways of farming, thus increasing yield and quality in the products.”

“Over 80 percent of the province relies directly on agriculture; the need to improve in that area is vital,” said Army Maj. Fred Oehler, a member of the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

Demonstration farms can be especially important in a country whose literacy rate is so low, Beron said.

“Given the literacy rate, people can’t really learn different farming techniques from books,” he said. “So it’s even more important that they have a location that they can learn these techniques with hands on experience to take back to their own farms.”

Afghanistan has historically used demonstration farms in the past to teach farming techniques, said Oehler, adding that before the Soviet invasion of the 1980s, they were used by the Afghan people to teach farming techniques.

Another area where the farms teach Afghan farmers improved techniques is in the pest management field, according to Air Force Staff Sgt. George Nagel, a Wisconsin Air National Guard member.

“One of the biggest challenges we face is that the farmers want a chemical solution to everything, much like we used in the U.S. back in the ‘40s and ‘50s,” Nagel said. “But there are a lot of problems that come with that, so we’re teaching them natural solutions such as biological control and natural predators.”

Due to the scarce resources in Afghanistan, pesticides are relatively hard to come by, an argument that is being used to nudge the Afghan farmers into using natural solutions, said Nagel.

“While the lack of access to chemicals may be the cause, we’re still seeing progress in their use of natural methods,” he said. “As we’ve seen in the past, there are a lot of problems that go along with spraying a lot of chemicals on crops, so learning these natural techniques is definitely progress.”

Much of the responsibility in the coming months will be transferred from the PRT to the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, and the team is here to help with the transition, Oehler said.

“What we’re stressing to them now is that we won’t be supporting the demo farms financially in the future,” he said. “But as we talk to the extension agents, we continue to stress their importance in teaching local farmers.”

“We’ve seen a lot of success with increased productivity and increased prices for the produce at market using some of the techniques learned at the demo farms,” said Oehler. “We’re hoping that the government of Afghanistan will continue to use them as a platform for education in the future.”

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