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Blackanthem Military News
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Last Updated:
Mar 19, 2010 - 6:16:21 PM |
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Blackanthem Military News
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| Members of the Indiana National Guard's 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team pull security during a training exercise at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a sub-installation of Camp Atterbury, Ind. The team is preparing for their deployment to Khost Province, Afghanistan, where they will provide agricultural education and revitalization to local Afghan farming communities. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Robert G. Cooper III) |
CAMP ATTERBURY, Ind. - The need for citizen-Soldiers has never been more important in the Global War on Terror than now. As new American policies begin to shift military focus from Iraq to Afghanistan, so too does the nature of the operations. While battlefields wrought with combat and casualties still exist throughout the Middle East, top military leaders are now shifting tactics from fighting to rebuilding, sustaining and growing.
But how, in war-torn Afghanistan - a country that has been entrenched in battle for decades - can the process of rebuilding begin? To answer that question, U.S. Army officials have turned their attention toward the National Guard, where civilian experts in economic growth now have the opportunity to bring their select skills from the heartland to the front lines. As a result, National Guardsmen from seven states have volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan as specialized units, tasked with the singular purpose of jump-starting the agricultural economy of Afghanistan.
The units, called Agribusiness Development Teams, are a new breed of Army operations. Rather than focusing on combating terrorism with weapons, these ADTs focus on rebuilding Afghan trust in both their economy and in their government through the country's chief industry - agriculture.
Maj. Shawn Gardner, the operations and training officer for Indiana's 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team, stressed the importance of agriculture when it comes to successful operations in Afghanistan.
"Agriculture sustains about 60 to 70 percent of the population of the country, so we won't have true security until the economic state is better repaired," Gardner said. "We'll start at the grassroots level, helping them maintain their agricultural baselines, and grow from there."
While the mission may sound simple at first, the concept of Soldiers putting down weapons to pick up a plow is much deeper.
"The tactical mission is to help the local farmers learn to establish some farming techniques that have been lost through several generations of war, and with that, the strategic mission is to help them have a better understanding and appreciation of their provincial government," Gardner said.
Farming the future
In order to stimulate the Afghan economy through agricultural initiatives, the ADTs will have to start at the provincial level, Gardner said. For the Hoosier Soldiers of the 1-19th, their mission focuses on Khost province, historically an agricultural hub for fruit and nuts prior to the Soviet invasions of the late ‘70s. Coupled with years of civil warring and tribal fighting, the current state of agriculture exists only through one- to two-acre subsistence farms. Kevin McNamara, a professor of agricultural economics at Purdue University, said the farms, offering barely enough for local communities to get by with, are a stark contrast to what Americans consider farming to be.
"Afghan agriculture is completely different from Indiana, but the strong agricultural backgrounds of the individuals deploying is significant," McNamara said. "This mission speaks highly of [the Soldiers who] volunteer to improve the lives of those in dire straits. Without this mission, we wouldn't be able to stabilize Afghanistan."
McNamara, a former Peace Corps member who has been to Afghanistan on numerous occasions to assist in agricultural education, has been partnering with the 1-19th to provide training on some of the short and long term goals of the ADT.
"Agriculture is the industry there," he said. "There isn't much else. Most people are poor there, so this agribusiness team approach will have a definite impact on improving and stabilizing their incomes.
Teach a man to harvest...
"The training we developed was an outgrowth of a meeting I had with [1-19th leadership] last June," McNamara said. "They were certainly excited about the opportunity of the deployment but realized the challenges it presented. After speaking about challenges they would face, both cultural and technological, we developed training based on base-line information of current agriculture statistics in Afghanistan."
The statistics centered the training Soldiers received last year on small enterprise farming and addressed soil fertility, wheat production, fruit production, forestry, animal husbandry and horticulture. The knowledge provided by Purdue's Department of International Agriculture focused on facets that McNamara said will have a direct impact not only on increasing production, but increasing the incomes of local farmers.
"We're hitting the issue of farming income, which is exciting," McNamara said. "That means more wheat to eat and more milk to drink. The more we increase their production, the more we increase their wealth and pull them from poverty."
The training also focused on addressing current shortfalls in Afghanistan's arid environment, which limits rainfall to mere inches per year.
"We had a session on pest management, where we looked to see how weeds and diseases are affecting crops and we discussed what pests or diseases to look for and how to treat them," McNamara said. "Irrigation is also very important, but hard to work with since the people don't have the education or financing to afford it. Our training gave a thorough overview on irrigation techniques that are relevant."
Once deployed, McNamara said that Purdue will continue to provide expert oversight.
"We will have video teleconferencing capabilities and a reach back system where we will have a full-time desk position that can provide answers in a quick fashion."
The plan of action
1-19th ADT Commander Col. Brian Copes said the deployment will feature many initiatives designed to both educate and sustain the instruction his team will provide to local Afghan communities. In addition to partnering with other U.S. departments such as the Agency for International Development, the team also will conduct agriculture education and information operations missions, which provides education through print and broadcast media.
To use a phrase he borrowed from Purdue, Copes calls the focus of their agriculture missions "post-production, post-harvest, value-added processing."
"It's a big, sexy term but once you understand how to turn grapes to raisins, it becomes clear," he said. Copes related the phrase to teaching local Afghan farmers how to trellis grapes, which are currently grown on the ground on most farms. Upon showing them how to increase grape production, the 1-19th can then show farmers how to streamline their storage capabilities, thus increasing the production of raisins.
Copes also plans to use programs from American youth education groups, such as 4-H and Future Farmers of America, to reach out to the Afghan's next generations of agriculturalists. The 1-19th also will use high school agriculture courses taught by one of the team's ADT leaders, who teaches the same curriculum at Emmerich Manual High School in Indianapolis.
"We've got a curriculum already, but we need to begin adapting it to their cultural needs," Copes said. According to the World Fact Book nearly one in three Afghans can't read, so Copes said they've also made plans for radio public service announcements on food safety and nutrition.
The ADT also will work with Khost University, one of Afghanistan's 15 universities. Copes said he and deputy commander Col. Cindra Chastain met with the university's chancellor and vice chancellor last year.
"We had an early dialogue and they warmly embraced the idea of a partnership with us. Our plans are to further develop three large greenhouses that have not been put into use there. We hope to figure out how to use them as a research facility. We will also utilize [approximately 200 acres] of university property to establish a demonstration farm."
The future of farming
Many challenges, most of them cultural, will be waiting for the team upon arrival, McNamara said.
"We've armed these Soldiers with a good understanding on how to improve the situation there," he said. "But it won't be easy and it won't be quick. There's a lot of potential, but this will probably be the hardest jobs these folks have ever had. The Afghan people will be reluctant to adopt changes they can't understand because it puts family at risk. There aren't banks or institutions that can support them. Understanding the production systems there and improving them will be their biggest challenge."
While Copes admits that change won't happen overnight, the focus of the mission isn't on immediate gratification.
"The reality is, I'm only going to be there for 10 months, but we don't know how long the U.S. will be there," he said. "We are planning for up to five rotations through Indiana, but that's up to the current administration. The knowledge and expertise we leave behind will be there long after our money and tractors go away."
ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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| Capt. Bob Cline, a member of the 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team, Indiana National Guard, accepts a sprig of wheat from an Afghan role-player during training at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a sub-installation of Camp Atterbury, Ind. The training focused on their mission overseas, where they will provide agricultural expertise to Afghan communities in order to foster economic growth and community trust in the country's provincial government. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Robert G. Cooper III) |
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| 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team Commander Col. Brian Copes (fourth from left) participates in a mock groundbreaking ceremony on a snowy day at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a sub-installation of Camp Atterbury, Ind. The ceremony is part of the team's preparation to deploy to Khost Province, Afghanistan, where they will participate in missions aimed at improving farming production. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Robert G. Cooper III) |
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| 1-19th Agribusiness Development Team Commander Col. Brian Copes (far right) congratulates an "Afghan leader" during a mock groundbreaking ceremony on a snowy day at the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center, a sub-installation of Camp Atterbury, Ind. The ceremony is part of the team's preparation to deploy to Khost Province, Afghanistan, where they will participate in missions aimed at improving farming production. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Robert G. Cooper III) |
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