National Guard soldiers from across Georgia are preparing to leave this spring for a yearlong mission in Afghanistan, where they will share some of this state’s considerable farming know-how.
Using modern American methods, soldiers from a new 60-man unit will be training Afghan farmers how to better irrigate their farms, take care of their crops and raise cattle.
The goal is to help Afghan farmers boost their production and export their goods. Some Georgia soldiers will concentrate on helping oppressed women in Afghanistan become more self-sufficient by raising bees and chickens.
“We are giving the Afghans a choice,” said Col. Bill Williams, the unit’s commander, who just returned home to Grayson this month from a short scouting trip in Afghanistan. “We are giving them hope. We are giving them options to choose from instead of having to turn to the insurgency to try to support their families and die trying to do it.”
Williams’ unit is the first of three Agribusiness Development Teams from Georgia that will be deploying to Afghanistan over the next three years. It will be replacing a similar unit from Nevada this spring. And it will be working with Afghan government officials as well as some federal agencies, including the State Department, the U.S. Agriculture Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.
The mission is fitting for Georgia soldiers. Agriculture is the state’s largest industry with a $68.8 billion economic impact and more than 383,000 jobs here.
Afghanistan’s economy, meanwhile, is still recovering from decades of ravaging war. Afghanistan’s agricultural industry is still using methods American farmers used in the 1800’s, Williams said. Afghan farmers produce opium, wheat, fruits, nuts and wool.
Many of the Georgia soldiers headed to Afghanistan have firsthand farming experience. And some have already deployed there with the state’s 48th Brigade Combat Team. The 48th returned home from a yearlong mission in Afghanistan about a year ago.
The Georgia soldiers’ latest mission will take them to southeast Afghanistan, which has seen some of that country’s fiercest fighting.
Williams and his fellow Georgia soldiers are training for their mission this week at the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. Among other things, they are learning about soil sciences; animal nutrition; bee farming; fruit production, storage and processing; irrigation techniques; and grain and feed storage.
On Tuesday, instructors from Fort Valley State University taught them how to trim goat hooves and check goats for lice and worms. The training made for a few comical moments. When one of the soldiers approached a goat head-on with a thermometer, an instructor smiled and said: “You are on the wrong end.” The soldiers laughed. The goat didn’t.
Keith Delaplane, a UGA professor and extension entomologist, later showed the troops how to care for bees. He pulled a hive apart and showed the troops some yellow and red pollen and even a queen bee before sampling a gooey bit of the honey. As he worked, Delaplanekept the bees calm with a handheld device that produces smoke. A few of the troops were unsure at first, wearing green veils to protect against stings.
“We’re glad you did that,” one of the soldiers told Delaplane after he used the smoker.
Another soldier nervously chimed in: “Why don’t you give them another shot?”
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