Missouri ADT team plants seeds of hope for Nangarhar Province

Published June 16, 2009
By Staff Sgt. Stacia Zachary
AFCENT Combat Camera Team

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FINLEY-SHIELDS, Afghanistan -- At war in a country that has been devastated by centuries of fighting, the U.S. military is committed to helping Afghanistan attain a functional level of prosperity and self-sustainability through improved agricultural methods.

Teams of National Guardsmen from Missouri and 11 other farm-belt states are deploying to Afghanistan on year-long tours to assist in this effort. The Guardsmen bring with them more specialized skills than those of the usual advisory panels that typically helm projects such as these. This mission calls for military members with expertise in farming, raising livestock and cultivating natural resources.

The U.S. military recognized the necessity of such teams in late 2007 when reconstruction teams realized people in rural areas needed something more pressing than a new school or road. Across Afghanistan, these teams have been inundated with requests for help with farming and other agricultural endeavors, according to a Combined Joint Task Force 101 press release.

The Nangarhar Province Agri-Business Development Team has focused on facilitating sustainable projects that aid the Afghan people in a manner that results in greater impact and more long-term benefits.

"We have a wide-range of programs geared at helping the Afghan people gain better farming practices and that often means providing basic systems such as wells and karizes to irrigate the crops," said Army Maj. Denise Wilkinson, ADT executive officer who is deployed from the Missouri Joint Force Headquarters. "We have projects with large budgets, but we have found that it's the small projects at little cost that have the biggest impact on the people who need our help the most."

Currently, the Nangarhar ADT has 74 active projects totaling $5.6 million. Projects range from building grain mills to the introduction of new wheat seed; canning and juicing factories for harvested vegetables and fruits to cool storage facilities to store harvested crops operated by solar panels; micro-slaughter facilities to increase sanitization of livestock meat to vet clinics focused on de-worming the livestock and increasing the overall health and longevity of the animals and their offspring; a variation of greenhouses to reforestation projects; from aiding in the pruning of olive farms to increase the crop yield for commercial use and resale to cold- and warm-water fish hatcheries.

"The real intent here is to show them how to harness the resources they've got," said Army Master Sgt. Richard Frink, a native of Carthage, Mo. "Once we do, you'll see a lot of change for the better, because they can take care of themselves."

The Missouri ARNG has a five-year commitment to the ADT mission in Nangarhar Province. Currently on the second ADT iteration, the first team had the difficult task of finding a place to house the new project headquarters as well as building relations so work could begin.

"We have increased the projects being done by ten-fold from ADT 1," said Sgt. Maj. Matthew Mullins, ADT team leader deployed from the 70th Troop Command, Missouri Joint Force Headquarters. "While they had the difficult task of setting this whole thing up, we get to focus on the mission and get the projects moving so that we can really help these people out."

When convoying out to these rural districts in Nangarhar Province, it's like stepping back in time and seeing how farming was done without the benefit of technology. Some methods the farmers use are antiquated, while others are shattered fragments of a farming community trying to harvest enough food to keep their families from starvation.

"There is a gross difference in the way we farm (in the U.S.) and the way these people have to," said the sergeant major, who co-owns 5,000 acres of Missouri farmland that has been in his family for more than 160 years. "We need to study our history of farming before the tractors and other equipment and give that know-how to the Afghans. By implementing old farming practices that were reliable and cost efficient, you stand a chance of helping these people trying to make something out of nothing."

During the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, they demolished the agricultural infrastructure under the guise of trying to stomp out insurgency. They broke the country and took away the people's ability to survive without their aid. Decades of warfare crippled the country by relegating the people to live by medieval standards.

"These are a people who have never been conquered and when the Soviets came, they tore this country up and what they didn't ruin, the Taliban took care of," said Sergeant Mullins.

Over time, irrigation systems and other agricultural structures fell into disrepair or were destroyed. Farming practices such as crop rotation to preserve the land's integrity was ignored in order to grow enough food to feed families. As a result, land, which once thrived, is now barren.

The ADT believes that if it can give everyone an equal opportunity to be able to provide for themselves and their families, then local squabbles will lessen. If it does, this may be another way to counter insurgency.

"One side of the road is green while the other is dirt," said Sergeant Mullins. "One family will starve while his neighbor's belly is full and that sets tempers off which the insurgents thrive on."

The Missouri ADT is trying a different approach to counterinsurgency than the Soviet regime. Afghans in rural, agricultural-dependent areas will be afforded the opportunity to become self-sufficient through the production of hearty crops and healthy livestock by giving then sustainable power with solar panels and water accessibility from wells, dams and karizes. This will diminish the inter-tribal fighting over water and land rights and will hopefully inspire neighboring clans to unite against those hoping to exploit the country in the name of terrorism.

"If we can make it more evened out and give everyone a chance to harness the water for irrigation and farming, then we can help control the tempers," he said. "Hunger makes a person do almost anything - even look the other way when there's a bad guy around."

This mission requires a lot of planning, discussions with tribal leaders and site visits before projects can even begin. To help with much of the initial legwork and subsequent project assessments and quality control checks, the team has local nationals who work with them.

"The Afghan engineers who work with us do the site recon and QA and QC checks," the major said. "This is both safer and more expeditious for us. It also puts an Afghan face on these projects which help gain local support for them. The Afghans have more pride in it if it's something they are creating instead of us just building it."

There are times, though, when the ADT project managers must visit the sites themselves and ensure everything is going according to specifications. On these trips, the joint Air Force/Army Security Forces team provides them with a convoy to safely travel out to project locations.

"We get them out there safely and provide them with 360 degree security," said Senior Airman Eric Moe from the Missouri Air National Guard. "Their focus needs to be on the construction and the contractors and keeping up good relations. This limits them from seeing potential risks. That's where we come in - we take that factor out of their hands so they can concentrate on their mission."

With three iterations left, the Nangarhar ADT has 26 projects worth $6.1 million being staffed for approval and an additional 95 future projects worth $14.2 million that will likely fall to ADT 3 to start and/or complete.

"This has been a true humanitarian experience for me," Sergeant Mullins said. "Good things can come from what we're doing here and even when this team is gone, we'll still follow up on how the mission is going. We won't abandon this project."

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