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Guard unit to train Afghans about agriculture

MADISON, Wis. — A newly formed unit of the Wisconsin National Guard soon will deliver Dairy State know-how to war-torn Afghanistan.

“What greater thing to project from this state than agricultural resources?” said unit commander Col. Darrel Feucht of Monona, who is on leave from his job as an accountant and manager for Great Lakes Higher Education Loan Services to lead the yearlong mission.

As Afghans become better able to produce more food, they will be less likely to grow poppies for opium or be recruited into the forces that have been battling the government and U.S. troops, Feucht said.

“Among the general population of the Kunar Valley, the people are kind of getting sick of being pushed around by the Taliban, and we are showing them a way to grow a legitimate crop and put food on their tables so they can be more independent,” said Feucht, who visited the area last month.

About one-fourth of the 82nd Agribusiness Development Team’s 58 members were chosen because they have experience in agriculture-related fields, including crop management, veterinary science, hydrology, forestry, pest control, food processing and marketing. Roughly half make up a security force and the rest will handle administration.

While few are full-time farmers, many have had exposure to Wisconsin farm life. Feucht said he grew up milking cows on his uncles’ farms near Horicon.

“I’m a farm boy at heart,” Feucht said.

Team members received a 40-hour crash course from University of Wisconsin-Madison instructors in topics ranging from beekeeping to fish farming to water management to the ins and outs of growing corn, pomegranates and poultry.

“They are not going to be experts by any means, but at least they won’t be clueless,” said Karen Nielsen, director of the Babcock Institute for International Dairy Research.

The institute does a lot of international education, but this curriculum was unique, Nielsen said.

“We haven’t had to train at this level before because most of those we’ve worked with have electricity and machinery, but the people in Afghanistan don’t,” Nielsen said.

The institute plans to bring in Amish farmers to help train the next group, Nielsen said.

Most people in Afghanistan farm with methods that were widespread in Wisconsin in the early 1900s, Feucht said.

“Afghanistan has fertile land and river valleys, but through many decades of conflict, many of their irrigation systems have been destroyed and much of their knowledge base has been lost,” Feucht said.

Team members will assist with small, ongoing projects to improve canals and will encourage construction of simple trellises to increase grape and cucumber yields.

But they have been cautioned about the limitations they’ll face, said Spc. David Dittbrenner, part of a small group that received more specialized training during a trip to the University of California-Davis.

Dittbrenner, one of the most experienced farmers in the unit, manages his family’s 500-acre spread near Cumberland, where they milk 80 cows, raise sheep and grow a variety of cereal crops.

He said he’ll be tempted to tell the Afghans how they would benefit from advanced techniques: modern fertilizers, devices that allow farmers to avoid spoilage by measuring moisture in harvested grain, or the possibility of turning corn into marketable fabrics, plastics and high-fructose sweetener.

But what is needed is instruction in more modest practices that promote sanitation, such as washing hands and drying grain on canvas sheets instead of in the dirt, Dittbrenner said.

“We were told to remember it’s not going to be perfect and that we should go for helping to make a small change,” Dittbrenner said.

Six members of the unit are women who will work with Afghan women on poultry production, wool and cashmere spinning, carpet weaving and honey production.

U.S. aid personnel and Afghan government officials will take the lead, with the 82nd offering support, Feucht said.

The National Guard has fielded agriculture teams since 2007. The Wisconsin group will replace an Illinois National Guard unit that is there now.