Agri-business Development Team IV empowers Afghanistan's agriculture extension agents

Master Sgt. Don Lilliman, ADT III; Staff Sgt. Robert Pharris, ADT IV; and Dr. Gary Hart, United States Department of Agriculture, meet with the Rodat District Agriculture

By Rachel Knight
Ngmo.pao@us.army.mil

JALALABAD, Afghanistan - Agri-business Development Team IV has already starting paving their way by developing bonds with the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's agriculture extension agents to maximize their impact while helping serve and educate farmers across the Nangarhar Province.

"In the eyes of farmer, the agriculture extension agents are probably the most visible and tangible examples of governance in the Nangarhar Province," said Col. Mike Fortune, team commander. "For this reason, we see the agents as our primary customers and we see the farmers of Nangarhar as their primary customers."

Team IV will follow the previous team's lead and continue to build education centers and soil labs.

"But that is only the beginning," said Fortune. "Our mission will extend well beyond brick and mortar projects."

Agents need to be good leaders; learn to coach, mentor and teach; know how to build trust, listen actively, ensure shared understanding and demonstrate care for people; how to resolve conflict, display character and encourage initiative; and understand the signs of corruption, ineptitude, favoritism and apathy.

Fortune said that a good portion of the future of the Nangarhar Province lies in the agents' hands and that their actions and their level of service will largely determine whether farmers decided to support the government or support the insurgency.

The Team will provide the training necessary to ensure agents understand and adhere to basic principles of third world agriculture that will empower and train framers.

One guideline is that government should avoid paternalism because handouts tend to decrease motivation and self-confidence in farmers.

"Motivation and self-confidence are two keys to long term agriculture improvement," Fortune said.

Agents will also need to not only focus solely on teaching farmers new technologies but also teach them a process by which they can continually improve their own agriculture. Many factors play a part in agricultural productivity and they vary from one farm to the next.

With guidance based on the book, "Two Ears of Corn - A Guide to People-Centered Agricultural Improvement," by Roland Bunch, teaching famers a process by which they can help themselves involves agents teaching new technology in a simple manner that Afghan farmers will understand, which will provide farmers with clear, observable results immediately enhancing the farmers' trust and confidence in their agriculture agents.

Agents need to teach farmers the concept of a limiting factor and how to identify it and correct it. The limiting factor is the one key variable that limits production. Secondly, agents need to teach farmers to set aside a very small portion of their land and designate it as an experimental plot.

"By carefully changing inputs and keeping records of these changes, farmers can identify their limiting factor and take actions to correct it," Fortune said. "Once this is done and production has increased, farmers can continue to use their experimental plot to find and correct the next limiting factor, and so on."

The teams intent while deployed is to train and empower the extension agents; hire local laborers; work with the Director of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Livestock to provide outreach programs and communicate with the villages; and emplace processes, procedures and controls to ensure gains in agricultural productivity can be sustained once the Agri-business Development Team mission is complete.

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