 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
WISCONSIN NATIONAL GUARD HELPING AFGHAN FARMERS
WPR News - Wisconsin National Guard helping Afghan farmers
|
|
Monday April 30, 2012
by Gilman Halsted
|
|
|---|
|
The bombs and bullets war is still going on in Afghanistan, but a team of Wisconsin National Guard soldiers is waging the war more peacefully. They're helping Afghan farmers grow more fruits and vegetables.
The 82nd Agribusiness Development Team arrived in Kunar Province a few weeks ago and has begun getting to know the farmers at three demonstration farms operated by the Afghan ministry of Agriculture. The team is based at Camp Wright near the city of Asadabad in Eastern Afghanistan. Three weeks ago a suicide bomber killed an Afghan Peace envoy sent to negotiate with the Taliban in the province. But Chris Beren who runs his own small beef farm near Superior says the guard's ag team has seen more things growing up than blowing up, "I saw cucumbers growing up like a lattice like trellis. They've got'em off the crowd. I mean these cucumbers were seven feet tall producing like mad. I guess I had never thought of growing my cucumbers in that manner."
Beren says the team is doing just as much learning from the Afghan farmers as they are teaching them. But he says before trying to convince a farmer to use new seeds or planting techniques he's had to make a personal connection, "We talked about our families, met him the next time and he asked me if I'd had a chance to talk to my wife and asked how she was doing and how my kids were. It's very easy to have a perception that they're bad people. We're in a war with them and they're all bad. But you know what? They're just like the guy next door who just want to make a life for him and his family."
|
| You can also listen to this story or download it now! |
 |
 |
(1:34) |
|
|
|
