By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent

KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Maj. Jeremy Gulley goes to work each day in a dry, dusty place known as Khowst Province in eastern Afghanistan. But instead of carrying a rifle, Gulley carries information booklets put together by FFA organizations from high schools around Indiana.

Gulley, a member of the Indiana National Guard’s 3-19th Agribusiness Development Team (ADT), is on a deployment to Afghanistan to help farmers there grow better crops and learn the latest animal husbandry techniques for their goat flocks. Goats are the main source of meat in Afghanistan.

In civilian life, Gulley lives in Hartford City, Ind., and is principal at Huntington North High School. “The focus of our agribusiness mission is now moving from teaching farmers to teaching Afghanistan officials to support farmers and deliver services to Afghans,” said Gulley. “The lessons we are learning in building the capacity of the Afghan government to connect with the people will greatly enhance the effectiveness of follow-on ADTs.”

The mission of the 3-19th is building on the mission of the 2-19th and previous National Guard units deployed to Afghanistan. Gulley’s hope is that future deployments will be able to further strengthen the foundation laid by the 3-19th.

Before the 3-19th ADT shipped out in September for an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan that will end in August 2011, members of the unit were involved in several weeks of training around Indiana, visiting FFA groups at various high schools. The unit has sought lesson plans from all 186 FFA chapters in Indiana that can be distributed to agricultural extension agents in Afghanistan. In addition, member of the 3-19th visited farms and agribusinesses across the state.

The education effort with FFA chapters was coordinated by Steve Hickey, director of leadership programs for the Indiana Department of Agriculture.

Gulley pointed out that before the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980, the country was a major agricultural producer, particularly in fruits and vegetables. Raisins and watermelons were two of Afghanistan’s biggest crops.

But during the Soviet occupation, nearly all the country’s fruit trees were cut down. The loss of the trees created a huge erosion problem, which the 3-19th is trying to help Afghan farmers fix. At the same time, the education services being provided by the 3-19th are designed to teach agricultural knowledge and provide the experience that was lost to a generation that was forced away from village farms in order to battle the Soviets.

Practical skills
What the 3-19th is doing, said Gulley, is providing a practical application of basic agriculture so Afghans can resume their traditional farming way of life. “Improved education will illuminate the path to a future that 30 years of war has made impossible and unknowable,” Gulley told a Fort Wayne newspaper.

The purpose of the educational visits around Indiana was to “leverage experience from the local farmer and educator,” said Col. Walter Colbert, commander of the 3-19th. Members of the unit visited Poe Farms in Franklin, Rice’s Family Meats in Spencer, Franklin Community High School, Newton Farms in Lakeville and Blue River Career Center in Shelbyville.

“This experience comes from life experiences that cannot be learned in a book,” said Colbert. “I feel like it provides the opportunity to touch, feel, and see what we are trying to accomplish.”

It didn’t take long after arriving in Afghanistan for members of the unit to start making contact with Afghan farmers. Forty-eight hours after arriving at Forward Operating Base Salerno, members of the 3-19th were on their first patrol outside the relative safety of the walled camp.

Since then they’ve visited several sites, but have spent a lot of their time at Camp Parsa, a training location for the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police. A demonstration farm is housed within the camp.

Members of the 3-19th have set up a drip irrigation system there, showing Afghan agriculture educators and local farmers how it’s done. The goal is to encourage farmers to use that method instead of the flood method now used.

Capt. Randy Cuyler of Buchanan, Mich., learned about drip irrigation during a training session at Purdue University.
“I started drip irrigation on a grape trellis at Camp Parsa based on what I observed at the Purdue orchard,” said Cuyler. “My intention is to train Afghan extension agents in water conservation through the use of drip irrigation.”

In civilian life, Cuyler is a senior chemical instrumentation technician at the Cook Nuclear Plant in Bridgman, Mich.

“The major difference between a training environment and here on the ground is definitely the security aspect,” said Cuyler.
“Construction of a greenhouse while on a college campus in the heartland of America is a walk in the park next to constructing one here in the middle of a combat zone.”

Meanwhile, 1st Lt. Bart Lomont of New Haven, Ind., is helping Afghan farmers identify new markets where they can sell their crops. To do that, Lomont regularly meets with village elders and district governors. Before going to Afghanistan, Lomont picked up some basic Pashtu language skills through Indiana University’s Center for the Languages of the Central Asian Region. While 15 days wasn’t enough for Lomont to become proficient in Pashtu, he said, the basics have been helpful in his “daily interaction with Afghan people.”

“Coming in with an American mindset of a typical workday and week can put you into culture shock,” said Lomont, who in civilian life is the policy director for Indiana Lt. Gov. Becky Skillman. “Learning and respecting the culture helps to understand the many prayer breaks throughout the day and frequent days off for religious holidays.”

The effort in working with Afghan farmers is a complex operation for the Indiana National Guard.

From teaching basic farming techniques to showing Afghans the latest treatment and care protocols for goats, the effort isn’t to take over the operation, but to show Afghan villagers how to do it themselves.

At the same time, Guardsmen like Lomont are taking along additional skills in diplomacy and culture. Before leaving for Afghanistan, Lomont met with Clarks Hill, Ind., farmer Jim Moseley, who was once deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Moseley visited Afghanistan 11 times and is intimately familiar with the country and its culture.

“Preparation in diplomacy and key leader engagement meetings came from a unique background in conducting meetings across the state of Indiana with local officials such as mayors and county commissioners,” said Lomont. “It was quite an experience to hear a district governor half a world away express the same concerns for his people as an elected official in Indiana might – education for their children and transportation infrastructure needs for increased commerce seem to be the focal point of each meeting.”

There is a historic irony to the 3-19th’s deployment, said Col. Colbert. “Guardsmen have been asked to exchange a rifle for a plow; conversely, the start of the militia (now what we know as the National Guard) they were asked to exchange a plow for a rifle.”