January 24, 2003
REBUILDING AFGHANISTAN:
Campus aids country’s ag production from the roots up
By Clifton B. Parker
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| Pomology professor Patrick Brown examines buds on a campus tree. He is among the UC faculty members who are lending their expertise in areas including orchard management and tree crops to help the Afghan people boost their horticultural productivity as part of the campus’s Afghanistan Agricultural Initiative.
Debbie Aldridge/Mediaworks |
The campus’s Afghanistan Agricultural Initiative involves partnering with the Univ-ersity of Kabul and the Afghanistan Mini-sters of Higher Education and Agriculture to conduct a series of workshops and translations of horticultural production guides.
"Renewing Afghanistan’s agriculture touches the lives of the majority of the population in that country and gives hope for the future," said Patrick Brown, a pomology professor who is leading the UC Davis team. Brown also is director of International Programs in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis.
From March through August, UC Davis faculty will carry out a market survey and prepare to hold workshops in Afghanistan to train Afghanistan-native agricultural specialists on issues such as orchard management and tree crops, post-harvest technology, agricultural business management, and analyzing farming systems. The idea is to provide the university system and government in Afghanistan with the know- how to rebuild their crop system and assist farmers in growing crops such as vegetables, almonds, walnuts, pistachios and grapes.
The program originated from a July 2002 meeting of representatives from the Afghan community living in the United States, UC Davis researchers and representatives from California’s horticultural industry. They agreed to develop a renewal plan for Afghanistan, and the next step was for Brown to meet with Afghanistan’s deputy minister of agriculture and the director of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
"Funding agencies and international organizations are looking at restarting agriculture as the primary method for getting the country back on its feet," Brown said. "UC Davis faculty are providing research and training support to rebuild Afghanistan’s agricultural sector and to assist in redeveloping agricultural education at the university level."
Other campus researchers include Adel Kader, pomology professor; Paul Marcotte, sociology lecturer; Frank Zalom, Coopera-tive Extension entomologist; Michael Reid, environmental horticultural professor; Chris van Kessel, agronomy and range science professor; Roberta Cook, agricultural economics professor; Ayesha Nibbe, a research assistant; Farbod Youssefi, a crop consultant. UC Davis will work with scientists from Purdue University and the USDA as well.
Cook said, "Afghanistan was well known since ancient times for its production of horticultural crops, producing many varieties of fruits, in particular, that were highly sought after in the region. For Afghanistan to rebuild its decimated agricultural sector, it needs improved technology, capital, infrastructure and business- management and marketing know-how. I’m excited to participate in the field of horticultural marketing."
Agriculture is the largest and most important sector of the economy in Afghanistan, a country of about 22 million people. Prior to the prolonged war and drought, Afghan households were able to produce about 86 percent of their food. Now, they expect to cover only about 59 percent of their total food requirement.
Horticulture once accounted for 30-50 percent of Afghanistan’s export earnings. Today, exports are negligible, according to Brown. In Afghanistan, 70 percent of the labor force works in agriculture. Most of these workers have no training in horticultural techniques, pest management or product packaging and distribution.
"Horticulture holds considerable potential for improving the nutrition and incomes of farm households, and could provide an alternative to poppy cultivation," said Brown. "However, investment will have to be made into transportation and marketing infrastructure, including storage facilities."
The UC Davis researchers will be joined by scientists from around the world. The International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), in Aleppo, Syria, is the lead organization in this initiative known internationally as the Future Harvest Consortium to Rebuild Agri-culture in Afghanistan. The U.S. government supported UC Davis to lead one of four ICARDA work groups aimed at renewing Afghanistan’s agriculture, Brown noted.
"As part of more long-term efforts, both UC Davis and UC Davis Extension hope to be involved in agricultural training programs in Afghanistan," Brown said. "We also hope to take part in rebuilding the University of Kabul’s curriculum on agriculture."
For some faculty, there’s a personal dimension as well.
Michael Reid, the horticultural professor, has a son who is a captain in the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. Last week his son returned home from assignment in Kandahar.
"It seems an appropriate counterpoint for me to be involved in a small way in developing the economic well-being that will help cement the peace that our military has been working to bring to that troubled region," Reid said.
He added that UC Davis’ expertise in the agricultural and horticultural sciences "makes us a natural partner in this project" and that this project reflects Chancellor Larry Vanderhoef’s call for the campus "to be engaged with the world community."
Dateline UC Davis is the faculty and staff newspaper for the University of California, Davis.