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PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Approximately 100 Afghans, representing Parwan, Kapisa, and Panjshir Provinces, gathered in the Parwan Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock building in Charikar March 30.
U.S. Army Lt. Col Aaron Polston had one main message, “We need to get out and teach farmers,” he said.
“What we want to do is promote a standard curriculum that we can push out into the high schools so that we can begin to build an educational foundation for agriculture here in Afghanistan,” said Polston, the Kentucky Agribusiness Development Team deputy team chief of Greenup, Ky.
The curriculum, purchased by the Kentucky ADT, was developed by Purdue and Kabul Universities and includes lesson plans for an entire school year. It covers agricultural topics from caring for livestock and crops to marketing products.
“It is very enriched with a lot knowledge and a lot of information, and I would like this [to] be included in the programs of our education at the universities and agricultural schools,” said Abdul Kabir Farzan, the director of Parwan’s DAIL, through an interpreter.
By using a standardized curriculum, the Afghan government will be able to hold teachers accountable if they fail to perform.
“If we want to promote education here in Afghanistan we have to hold teachers to standards, and we have to promote those standards through a basic educational curriculum,” said Polston.
The benefit of the new curriculum may reach more than just children. Shahmir Amiri, the director of Panjshir’s DAIL, said his province has teams who travel to farms to educate farmers about agriculture. While these teams are very basic, Amiri believes this new curriculum will improve their performance and thereby increase production among the farmers of his province.
The need to increase production is also felt by Muhammad Arifhossini, the director of Kapisa’s DAIL. He hopes this program will help educate farmers and expose them to mechanization in agriculture.
“Nowadays, our people want to increase their production in every area, for example, in agriculture and in livestock,” said Arifhossini. "[They want] to work better in plant protection and also their cooperative system, which is very important for our farmers to work together with us, and to increase their production, and sell in [the] market.”
| Date Taken: | 03.30.2011 |
| Date Posted: | 04.04.2011 18:19 |
| Story ID: | 68274 |
| Location: | PARWAN PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 146 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Kentucky ADT works to improve Afghan agriculture, by SGT Adam L. Mathis, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
