Missouri groups team up to help Afghan farmers
Published Nov. 6, 2007
The Missouri National Guard is putting together a team to improve agriculture in Afghanistan.
The Missouri National Guard, Missouri Farm Bureau, Lincoln University, College of the Ozarks and MU have formed the Agribusiness Development Team to improve agriculture programs in Afghanistan.
"The Afghan agriculture right now has been hurt by the war that is over there," said Estil Fretwell, public affairs director for the Missouri Farm Bureau.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Afghanistan's conflicts during the past 20 years, along with droughts, has left poppy farming as one of the only easy cash crops. These poppies contain the starting ingredient of the drug opium, two-thirds of which comes from Afghanistan.
"Raising poppies is a major crop in Afghanistan," Fretwell said.
He added that the purpose of sharing farm expertise with Afghanistan is so that farmers have "the knowledge to raise other types of crops."
Another big problem for farmers in Afghanistan is storage of the crops they do produce, Missouri National Guard Capt. Tamara Spicer said.
Without a way to store their food, they end up selling most of their crops and having to buy them back later.
Major General King Sidwell, an adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard, met with MU interim President Gordon Lamb on Sept. 6 to discuss partnering up for the project for their agricultural expertise.
"No one has been assigned in this team from the university at this time," Missouri National Guard spokesman Jamie Melchert said.
The duty of the Missouri Farm Bureau was to lend support to the program wherever it goes, Fretwell said. No definitive action is in the works yet. Lieutenant General Clyde Vaughn, director of the Army National Guard, approached them to participate in the program. Vaughn will also speak at the annual meeting next month.
"The whole idea is to use American soldiers who are also farmers and use them as a resource for the Afghan farmers," Fretwell said.
The program is still in its infancy, but the focus of the Missouri National Guard at the moment is to make preparations for mobilization, Spicer said.
The team will be the first of its kind and will start out in the Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan. Sidwell said in a news release that if the team is successful, partnerships between other states as well as other valleys and provinces in Afghanistan might be possible.
"Missouri has a strong record of supporting out farm families," Gov. Matt Blunt said in a news release. "I am confident that with assistance of our National Guard members, Missouri Farm Bureau and University of Missouri, Afghanistan will be successful in reaching out to their farm families and providing them with tools they need to jumpstart their agricultural economy."