Courtesy Photo | Texas ADT V spent several months mentoring and training the local people to improve...... read more read more
Subscribe
By Staff Sgt. Melissa Bright
Texas Agribusiness Development
FORWARD OPERATING BASE GHAZNI, Afghanistan - Wide smiles and a fine layer of the local "moon dust" covered the faces of the members Texas Agribusiness Development Team V-FOB Ghazni as their replacements stepped off a CH-47 Chinook two weeks ago, signaling the end of their tour.
"Don't get me wrong, we're happy you're here since that means we can now go home," said Army National Guard Sgt. Maj. Jeffrey Muckleroy, the non-commissioned officer in charge of ADT V, to Col. Jet Hays and his team, "but we're more excited to get you ready to pick up where we left off helping to make this part of Afghanistan a better place."
The National Guard began sending Agribusiness Development Teams from across the nation into Afghanistan in 2008 to provide basic agricultural education and services, assist with improving agricultural infrastructure and conduct stability operations for the people of Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
The teams are tasked with identifying, developing, and implementing a comprehensive and sustainable agribusiness development strategy with clear measures for effectiveness for improving the agriculture industry in order to advance their quality of life and lend legitimacy and effectiveness to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
The unique nature of the ADT operation requires the application of a wide variety of civilian acquired skill-sets to guarantee mission accomplishment, and the team came prepared. Texas ADT V arrived in Ghazni at the end of July 2011 with a mix of security force personnel and agriculture specialists to included an agronomist, pest management specialist, agriculture marketing specialist, hydrologist, soil science specialist and large-animal veterinarian in addition to finance and budget specialists.
Even with all that knowledge, the team had to make up for the critical skills they lacked to deal with the local agriculture community in the Ghazni Province. In some areas there were stark differences to present day practices in the U.S.
"We spent our train-up period re-learning how our grandparents farmed in the early 1900's," explained ARNG Lt. Col. Devin James, Texas ADT V officer in charge. "Our goal was to resort back to some of the basic farming techniques to understand how we did things in the United States and to evaluate how production agriculture has changed and grown over the years."
"Each soldier was specifically handpicked based on their college education/personal knowledge to fill specific roles and position in order to share and utilizes their experience and try and make some improvements in Afghan farming," James continued.
They spent the rest of the summer getting to know the area and the movers and shakers within the local government and non-government agencies and what course of action would best serve their primary mission of improving agribusiness production, increasing the level of agricultural training and reduce the unemployment levels within the province of Ghazni, lending legitimacy and effectiveness to the GIRoA.
The overall team objectives included convincing the local agricultural agents out of the office of the Director of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock to come to the demonstration farm and going out to a nearby Agricultural College to work with the staff to exchange knowledge and ideas.
For example, ARNG Staff Sgt. David Verdine, the wheat and alfalfa agronomist for Texas ADT V, used his more than 10 years of experience as a farmer in Texas to spearhead extensive improvements on the five-acre demonstration farm located within the forward operating base.
"When we started, there was nothing but a big patch of sand," commented Verdine as he led the newly arrived team members around the plot of land cordoned off inside the compound to show off the fully functional bee hive, another project continued by the group for the betterment of the community.
"We brought in tons of manure and clay to improve the water retention quality of the soil and spent a lot of time getting this place ready to serve as a learning facility," he continued.
Now there are rows of onions, squash, watermelon, apples, grapes, beans, an actual greenhouse and raised beds for tomatoes, providing the team a place to demonstrate several pruning, spacing and training techniques to the ag-extension agents, who are then, in turn, enabled to spread the information out to the public and improve the yield in everything from small kitchen gardens to the local apple orchards.
Not to mention adding a little something extra to the community grill when harvest time arrives.
Additionally, the team made great advancements in enabling the local agricultural community through implementing six watershed projects in the outlying districts, impacting approximately 4,000 acres of arable land; developing, translating and distributing 27 different AEA training packets; and facilitating a weekly agricultural radio program with the Polish radio station on Ghazni.
"We built on a lot of the programs already in place when we arrived," said Muckleroy, "But Ag-Ed is brand new to this team. We started it from scratch and it took off like wild fire. I am proud to say it was so successful, I know of several individuals interested in taking it to Cambodia, Kenya and Africa, with the US Department of Agriculture expressing interest in using it here country wide after we leave."
In addition to focusing on agricultural improvements, the team worked extensively to develop and host several budget working groups and seminars to improve the local government officials understanding of complicated funding process necessary to get the projects off the ground.
"Budget working groups are essential to getting this country up and running and there is a great opportunity here for this team to continue the work we started," said Muckleroy as he explained the importance for understanding the budget process to the incoming finance team.
"Our success," said James, Texas ADT V officer in charge, during an orientation brief for the new team, "has been dependent on the hard work of the team as a whole and the individual effort each one of us put into executing our mission shift from development to capacity building within GIRoA."
ADTs are one of the lead elements amongst all enabler units in Regional Command- East to make a focus shift from true development in infrastructure and concentrate on capacity building of Afghan government officials and Afghan agriculture professions through educational events, training opportunities and one on one mentoring.
"We leave behind a great legacy for Col. Hays and Texas ADT VI and look forward to seeing the progress they too will make towards improving the lives of the people of Afghanistan," said Lt. Col. Devin James.
| Date Taken: | 06.17.2012 |
| Date Posted: | 06.18.2012 12:05 |
| Story ID: | 90183 |
| Location: | FORWARD OPERATING BASE GHAZNI, AF |
| Web Views: | 332 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, Texas Agribusiness Development Team V set to return home from Afghanistan, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
