The Associated Press (AP) is reporting out of Kabul that US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, who is finishing up a three day tour of the country (his sixth visit to Afghanistan overall), is working towards changing the Afghan agricultural landscape from one where poppy used to produce opium and heroin thrives and is promoted by the Taliban to one where the government is providing farmer support, credit flows, and diversification describes the agriculture industry best as grapes, nuts, pomegranates, and apple orchards dominate the landscape.This is no easy effort, as the AP reports that currently the Taliban offers what the Afghan government can’t—credit, seeds, and fertilizer to grow a drug that provides five times the profit over a similar acreage of wheat. In a country where 80 percent of the population lives off farming, this spells trouble for US efforts to create structural stability in the country. This is why the Obama administration, in hopes of stabilizing the country, has made “agricultural reforms” the top of the non-security agenda in the country, according to the AP.
Secretary Vilsack acknowledges the challenge, telling the AP ‘“If the Taliban offer something, you have to be able to beat it with something else [.]”’ To that end the Secretary announced the US government is giving the ministry of agriculture in Afghanistan $20 million “to improve the ministry’s capacity on condition that it accept five American advisers.”
The AP reports that Vilsack has confidence in the Agriculture Minister, Muhammad Asif Rahimi, who established a “framework” that will help farmers transition to new crops and techniques.
Because of the value of the poppy trade, the US government feels the need to proceed cautiously in their efforts so not to denigrate already established goodwill and not cause job losses that will alienate farmers. However, Vilsack remains confident in the upcoming and ongoing efforts, pointing to success in the Helmand province, home to 50 percent of the world’s poppy. “Farmers were offered wheat seeds and fertilizer at a reduced cost and the poppy crop was reduced by a third [.]” Vilsack believes similar initiatives could work throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Sue Pleming of Reuters India is reporting that Secretary Vilsack sat down with some Afghan farmers who told the secretary that there is a need for more international aid. Vilsack was meeting the farmers at a fruit export plant in Kabul that was partially funded by the United States. The problems the farmers cited are the same problems that the Taliban takes care of for farmers who grow poppy—a lack of credit facilities, problems getting seeds, and problems getting their product to the market.
It was at this stop that the secretary announced the $20 million in additional aid the US will provide the Afghanistan agriculture ministry to improve the agriculture industry in the country and move farmers from producing poppy to producing wheat and value-added products like fruits, nuts, and vegetables.
Pleming notes in her article that the US has already spent $300 million on agricultural projects in the country and may spend more than $400 million this year. Still the situation in Afghanistan is not good because of the profit farmers reap from poppy production, a profit the US hopes can be replicated through growing new crops that once were a staple of Afghan agriculture.
To read the AP article click here.
To read the Reuters article click here.
Posted: 01/12/10
