Members of the Missouri ADT survey the Kabul River with USDA’s Tom Vermeersch.

Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields, Nangarhar, Afghanistan – My new assignment is in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province near Jalalabad, the second largest population center in Afghanistan, along the volatile Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In August, I left Camp Blessing in Kunar province, just north of Jalalabad, to assist here. My new home is Forward Operating Base Finley-Shields in Nangarhar, also home to the Nangarhar provincial reconstruction team (PRT) and Behsud District Support Team. Part of the base is an old Soviet motel built several decades, in which I share a room with an Army medic, a great guy whom I’ve taught a few songs on the guitar. A total of nine civilians from three agencies work here (State, U.S. Agency for International Development, and USDA). In addition, the Missouri Agribusiness Development Team (ADT) of the U.S. Army National Guard also calls Finley-Shields home. In the past eight weeks, I’ve enjoyed being part of this larger team. The ADT allows us civilians to get off base more and interact directly with Afghan farmers and extension agents. I also noticed how this focused, comprehensive U.S. effort here in Nangarhar is instilling greater confidence in the Afghan people. Read more »

By Anita Regmi, USDA Research, Education, and Economics

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from the USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Living and traveling through rural South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, I have seen firsthand the challenges faced by many families as they strive to eke out a livelihood off a small, unyielding patch of land.  The difficulties faced by such families will only become more severe as climate change, population growth, and increased use of arable land to produce alternative uses for food such as biofuels erode food availability. Read more »

By Edward Messmer (State Department) and Matt Herrick (USDA)

As a foreign service officer with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, Quintin Gray has assessed challenging situations in some harsh places. But nothing like in Afghanistan.

“The soil is like a fine dust,” said Gray,  who recently returned from a visit to Afghanistan’s Marjah district in Helmand province. “But they have water. It’s just a matter of delivering it effectively.”

Gray is on loan from USDA to the State Department as a Senior Agricultural Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Ambassador Richard Holbrooke. He went to Marjah last week to inspect the progress being made in irrigation, alternative crops, and market development, as well as to gather information in advance of this fall’s important planting season. Gray met with the District Governor, who escorted him through an open-air market. Walking side by side in the new marketplace, Gray and the governor discussed market conditions with local farmers and produce merchants.  In January, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack made a similar trip to Marjah to assess the efforts of Americans and Afghans to revitalize Afghanistan’s agricultural sector.

Since Secretary Vilsack’s visit, Gray learned how civilian-military coalition units in the region are planning to bring the badly deteriorated canal system – which is critical to the economic life of the district – back to its former efficiency.  One of the USDA agricultural experts working in Helmand, Wes Harris, explained that the civ-mil units plan to replace more than 400 sluice gates and flow control points that regulate the flow of Helmand River water through the extensive irrigation system, which will ensure that downstream communities have sufficient water for their cultivated areas.  The visit and various meetings with U.S. and Afghan officials on the ground provided Gray with a better understanding of the challenges facing the agricultural community as well as the potential that exists to build a prosperous economic base.

Since 2003, more than 100 USDA employees have deployed for service as agricultural experts in Afghanistan. Currently, 54 USDA employees like Wes Harris are fanned out across the country working as part of civilian-military units. These individuals come from backgrounds as soil and plant scientists, marketing specialists, veterinarians, water and rangeland specialists, foresters, and other specialties. As part of a unified U.S. government team which includes team members from the Department of Defense, the State Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other agencies, USDA is delivering high-impact assistance and bolstering Afghanistan’s agricultural sector, the traditional core of the Afghan economy. The Afghan-led agricultural assistance strategy focuses on increasing agriculture jobs and incomes by increasing agricultural productivity, regenerating agribusiness, and rehabilitating watersheds and improving irrigation infrastructure. It also aims to increase Afghans’ confidence in their government, particularly the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, by building their capacity to deliver services to farmers and herders.

District Governor Haji Zahir and Senior Agricultural Advisor Quintin Gray
discuss issues as they walk through Loy Cherah bazaar. 

Senior advisor Gray and State Department rep Ed Messmer listen to Marjah
merchants describe market conditions. 

Today marks the release of the Feed the Future Initiative Guide during the Chicago Council of Global Affairs’ Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security. This guide lays out the implementation strategy for the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative. USDA has been actively engaged in the development of the Feed the Future strategy from its inception and created an inter-departmental food security council that has contributed to the Feed the Future strategy and provided reviews of country investment plans.

In Washington, DC today, Secretary Vilsack gave a speech on the importance of global food security during the symposium. During the symposium, Secretary Vilsack joined leaders of various U.S. Government agencies and world development groups to discuss U.S. food security and agricultural development policy in conjunction with this initiative. Secretary Vilsack touched on how many of USDA’s strengths would contribute immensely to this initiative, specifically the Department’s capacity to conduct and promote research, as well as contribute in the area of institutional capacity building.

Vilsack emphasized that USDA’s global food security strategy focuses on a number of interventions needed to increase global food production and increase the incomes of the poor. His speech focused on two of these areas: 1) research and extension, and 2) building capacity through assistance, sound public policies and institutions. 

USDA have been working with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to develop a global agricultural research agenda that addresses some of the fundamental constraints that contribute to food insecurity, such as pests, disease and weather in major food crops and livestock products. The strategy will also focus on increasing agricultural productivity and improving soil and water use efficiency.

Ensuring food security goes beyond just producing food—it also involves providing access to food, through trade, private investment in the agri-food sector, improving food safety and nutrition, and developing and deploying new technologies. USDA also offers fellowships to train scientists and faculty exchange programs to train agricultural faculty and develop adult education programs.

Creating a vibrant global food system, where all people have enough to eat, where farmers, wherever they are located, are profitable and are sustainable, is an important goal for USDA. USDA sees our engagement in Feed the Future as central to achieving that goal, and we believe that our unique capacities in research, extension, and institutional capacity building can make an important contribution to this initiative. 

Learn more about the Feed the Future Initiative at FeedtheFuture.gov.

This article appeared on May 14, 2010 in the USA Today.

The secret as to how Afghanistan will achieve a stable, secure future really is no secret at all: agriculture.
 
So it was not surprising during this week’s meetings in Washington between U.S. and Afghan officials that agriculture was a key topic of discussion.
 
In Afghanistan, 85 percent of the population relies on agriculture to earn a living, and strengthening Afghanistan’s agricultural sector is a critical element in stabilizing the nation. But until the agriculture sector can support legitimate crops like wheat and fruits, the Taliban will continue to prey upon disaffected, out of work youth and push the production of poppy.  Unfortunately, poppy production provides little return to the farmers; pomegranates will earn a farmer five times that of poppy on the open market, almonds will earn seven, and grapes will earn eight times as much.  
 
That is why the United States and Afghanistan are working together with a shared strategy to rebuild Afghanistan’s once vibrant agricultural economy.  Our efforts are already yielding results in troubled provinces such as Helmand, the heart of Afghan poppy production.
 
The strategy is four-fold. First, we must increase the productivity of staple crops such as wheat, introduce complementary crops such as soybeans, and improve the yields of cash crops like horticulture and nuts. Second, we must protect Afghanistan’s natural resources by investing in watershed management, sustainable forestry efforts and soil conservation. Third, we must redouble our efforts to rebuild the country’s agricultural marketing system and return Afghanistan to its once-prominent position as the fruit and nut epicenter of Central Asia. And fourth, our countries must continue to work together to restructure Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture by recruiting competent professionals, especially in the rural areas where extension agents with technical knowhow and expertise can make a real difference to farmers and herders.
 
The possibility of the turnaround we envision is real. International demand for Afghan agriculture is returning. In Dubai recently, at the region’s biggest food and trade expo, Afghanistan’s tiny stall was overrun with customers from Europe, Africa and the Middle East with orders for dried fruit and nuts. For the first time, Afghan apples and other fresh fruit are being air-freighted to India. Just recently, a Kabul businessman obtained his certification to begin exporting raisins to Europe. And, in what might be the biggest boon to Afghanistan’s agricultural economy thus far, the nation’s first concentrated juice factory opened near Kabul in October 2009, selling out its entire production for 2010 in just six weeks. The plant employs hundreds of Afghans and is planning an expansion so it can continue to ship its products across the globe.  Other similar facilities are being planned across the country.
 
Furthermore, the U.S. and Afghan governments are working with Afghan farmers to introduce new production and post-production technologies, while improving existing crops with enhanced cultivation and seed varieties. American support is helping to develop Afghan grading, packaging and sanitary methods per international standards. And together we are building the infrastructure and opening the transportation routes necessary to get Afghan grains, fruits and nuts to consumers.
 
The Afghan Ministry of Agriculture also needs help to build research and agricultural extension services – from satellite mapping to experts standing in a field teaching farmers. This is an area where USDA’s assistance is crucial. USDA has contributed more than 100 highly-skilled individuals to this effort – foresters, soil and plant scientists, marketing specialists, and water and rangeland specialists – all with a special ability to share their knowledge through demonstration.
 
USDA is partnering with the U.S. Army National Guard, the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, other U.S. federal agencies and, most importantly, Afghans, to solve complex agricultural issues. Moreover, the Afghan government has reorganized its cabinet so that ministries focused on solving the problems facing its rural communities are teamed together: agriculture, electricity, water, construction, and counternarcotics.
 
For 85 percent of the Afghan people, the path to a better job and life for their family is likely to pass through a farm.  That is why, despite the challenges that certainly lie ahead, we are committed to building a better life for the Afghan people by working together to rebuild its once-vibrant agricultural economy.
 
- Tom Vilsack is the United States Secretary of Agriculture and Mohammad Asif Rahimi is the Afghan Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock

I want to thank Avoided Deforestation Partners for holding this event and inviting me to join all of the distinguished speakers here today in urging the adoption of REDD plus as part of a global climate framework. Read more »