By RICK A. RICHARDS
Indiana Correspondent WINAMAC, Ind. — A three-year project undertaken by the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) hopes to encourage Afghan farmers to change their planting habits and at the same time increase the food supply in Afghanistan.
It’s an ambitious project that will see 3,000 small and subsistence farmers annually sign on to grow soybeans. At harvest, Afghan farmers will be able to sell their crop to a processing facility being built near Kabul. There, the crop will be converted into nutrient-rich flour.
Overseeing the effort is the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH), an arm of the ASA, said Scott Fritz, a soybean farmer from Winamac, Ind., and a member of the WISHH board.
“We think this project is going to have a market for not only human consumption, but for the poultry and baking industry in Afghanistan,” said Fritz. “We are excited to help Afghan farmers rebuild their infrastructure while we make healthy food available to their fellow citizens and build a market for soy.”
WISHH also is working with the USDA’s Food for Progress program, which puts the cost of the soy effort in Afghanistan at $26 million. To meet the immediate needs of the Afghan people, the USDA is providing 240 metric tons of defatted soy flour over the next three years. That amount will help feed 5,000 women and their families.
The agreement also includes 13,750 metric tons of soybean oil that will be sold in the local market to support the project.
Fritz, who has been involved with WISHH for more than a decade, said the project is a natural evolution of what ASA has been doing for the past decade to create new markets around the world.
“I’ve watched how we’ve evolved over the years,” he said. “There is a need to do basic development like this. The Afghanistan project is a magnificent project because it’s helping to build national security and it’s helping feed a country.”
Fritz admits the effort is small in comparison to massive soybean operations found in the United States, but the farmers involved will reap tremendous benefits. Although not officially an effort to encourage Afghan farmers to grow something besides poppies for the opium trade, ASA officials admit the more acres there are in soybeans, the fewer will be available for poppies.
Fritz said U.S. growers shouldn’t view the Afghanistan effort as competition for their product. “The world market is so big that we can’t supply it all,” he said.
Over the years, the ASA, through WISHH, has set up soybean production efforts in 28 countries around the world, from Southeast Asia to Africa, to Central and South America. WISHH was created in 2000 by soybean growers as a way to help undernourished people around the globe.
Fritz and his wife, Cathy, farm 2,500 acres of corn, soybeans and popcorn in Pulaski County in north-central Indiana. He has been raising soybeans since leaving Purdue in 1974 and going to work for his father.
“I’m still amazed at the things that come across my desk,” said Fritz. “Who knew a kid from the sand hills of Pulaski County could see and do the things that I do?”
Jim Hershey, executive director of the American Soy Foundation, thinks American soybean producers can play a role in strengthening agriculture in Afghanistan.
“For the economy to grow in Afghanistan, farmers there are going to need an alternative crop,” he said. “We think growing soy in the northern region of the country will add to the population’s income and diet.”
To make sure there is enough water to irrigate and a market for the crop, Hershey said the foundation, through the ASA, is working with the Naseeb Group in Afghanistan and SALT International of Grinnell, Iowa, to develop infrastructure and a processing plant.
The Naseeb family is one of the richest in Afghanistan and has been involved in development projects throughout the Middle East, particularly in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates. It also has been involved in projects in Brazil, Uzbekistan and Russia. SALT International has been involved in agricultural development projects in Laos, Iraq and other food-poor areas of the world. SALT is being asked to build and assist in operating a soybean processing facility in Kabul.
Hershey said the three-year effort in Afghanistan also includes seed production efforts that would help local farmers have access to seeds to provide the maximum yield for typical conditions there.
“This is a focused approach. We’re signing up 3,000 small farmers this year, all of whom are raising crops on one to three acres of land. We expect to do the same over the next two years,” he said.
Establishing the crop and processing plant will be the easy part, said Hershey.
“The challenge is selling the soybeans for cash so farmers can buy the necessities of life.”
He said once other farmers see those raising soybeans are able to market their crop, others will be willing to sign up. “We’re not introducing something that will become tofu,” said Hershey of the soy product that typically comes to mind. “We’re introducing something that can be used to make the flatbread that Afghans typically make.”
The processing facility being built near Kabul is an extruder that will be able to produce 5,000 tons a year of flour. Hershey said that is a small production facility and it’s viewed as a pilot project that could be expanded.
“We know from previous experience around the world that as countries increase the protein in their consumption, they continue to grow. The extruder that we’re building makes flour that is ready to be used and cooked,” he explained.
Hershey said families can keep the flour, which contains 8 percent soy oil, and use it themselves or sell it for cash. Either way, the result is that the families gain.
For more details on the ASA, visit www.soygrowers.com and for on WISHH, visit www.wishh.org |
