Agribusiness Development Team III completes cold storage facility

By: Silas Allen
Missouri National Guard Public Affairs

Sgt. 1st Class Larry McNamar, a project manager for Agribusiness Development Team III, and Musafer Khan, of Jalal Koat Construction Company, cut the ribbon on a new solar-powered cold storage facility in the Kama district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar Province. (Photo courtesy Jalal Koat Construction Company)
NANGARHAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan - A Missouri National Guard unit recently finished construction on a cold storage facility in a village in eastern Afghanistan.

Members of the Jefferson City-based Agribusiness Development Team III finished work on the solar-powered facility, which is located in a village in Nangarhar Province's Kama district, earlier this month. The facility was officially opened at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, led by Sgt. 1st Class Larry McNamar, the project manager, and Musafer Khan, of Jalal Koat Construction Company, the team's implementing partner for the project.

Maj. Sean Elfrink, the officer in charge of the unit's agriculture team, said the facility allows farmers in the 200-person village to store produce that will be sold at market, as well as goods that will be consumed by the village itself.

"The facility will serve the needs of the village," Elfrink said. "At this point the locals can take their produce to market and get a good price."

The opening of the unit is the culmination of months of work for members of the unit. The facility is the newest of several cold storage units the team has built around the province. Soldiers from the Missouri National Guard's previous Agribusiness Development Team began work on several units, and the current team picked up where they left off. The first cold storage facility was completed in the Chaparhar district in September.

"ADT II completed the hardest part of the work, and that was getting it off the ground," Elfrink said.

Until recently, farmers in Nangarhar Province have been unable to utilize cold storage due to the lack of reliable electricity in rural areas of the province. The previous team began work on the first cold storage unit in the province. In the meantime, team members taught local farmers methods, such as canning and preserving, that were used regularly in Missouri before rural areas in the state had reliable electricity.

The team's mission is to help rebuild the province's agriculture and livestock infrastructure, which has been crippled since the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan in 1979. During the invasion, Soviet troops crushed agricultural areas to flush Afghan fighters out into the open. The practice had the added effect of making the local population more dependent on the occupiers for their livelihood.

When the Soviets pulled out of the region nearly 10 years later, Afghanistan's agricultural infrastructure was in shambles. Years of civil war followed. Nangharhar Province, which had once been a leader in the export of dried fruits and citrus, was left unable to feed itself. Local farmers turned to poppies in the absence of the resources needed to produce anything else. Poppies are used to produce a number of illicit drugs, including opium and heroin. In more recent years, Afghan president Hamid Karzai has repeatedly said that profits from poppy cultivation have gone to finance terrorist activity.

In the future, Elfrink said, the team hopes to establish grower associations in villages with cold storage units. Although the project is still in the early planning stages, Elfrink said the unit is working closely with representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to put it into practice.

The grower associations would be based on the same concept as farmers' co-ops in the United States, Elfrink said. A board of directors would govern the association. The board would hire a manager, and the manager would hire other employees. All members of the association would share all the profits and risks. Elfrink said he is not aware of any other grower association in the area.

Under the advice of USAID representatives, the team uses the term "grower association" instead of "co-op" to disassociate their projects with policies established during the Soviet occupation of the region in the 1980s. During their occupation, Soviets referred to their communes as "co-ops." Because of the leftover connotation the term still carries in the region, Elfrink said, members of the unit thought it best to avoid using it altogether.

Elfrink said the unit benefits greatly from the progress made in the region by the previous two teams. Their work has put Elfrink in the unique position of being able to share the collective experience of the three teams with similar teams from other states.

"We are in debt to the hard work of ADT I and ADT II," Elfrink said. "They built the fighting position we now have, we are simply improving it."

Agribusiness Development Team III is made up of approximately 60 Missouri National Guard Soldiers and Airmen. The Missouri National Guard became the first in the nation to have an Agribusiness Development Team in 2007. The first team served in Nangarhar Province from fall 2007 until December 2008. The current team has been serving in the region since September. The members will return home in August, when they will be replaced by another Missouri National Guard team.

For more information about the Missouri National Guard, please call 1-800-GoGuard or visit www.moguard.com.

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For more information about this release, please contact Silas Allen at (573) 638-0236 or e-mail him at silas.w.allen@us.army.mil.