Through my business, I worked in Afghanistan on agriculture projects designed to assist with stabilization efforts in the region.  I want to share with you some of the lessons learned along with some photos.  I hope these are beneficial to those of you looking into or already working on low tech, sustainable farming/gardening projects here in the states.

Here is an aerial view of the region where we worked.
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We worked with the military stationed in the region.
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Most people think Afghanistan is a big sandbox, but soils in the valleys range from Loamy Sand to Clay Loam; good soils to grow most anything and similar to many places in the US.
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Start seeds early and plant crops that are adapted for your area.  We used open pollinated seeds since people in Afghanistan save their seeds and have had problems saving seeds from a good crop of hybrids not producing the next year.  It is good to keep this in mind and know the difference.
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Get the right tools for the job. Take into consideration what tools are available in the area.
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Get your fertilizer.  We used manure and stayed away from commercial fertilizers that could have alternative and destructive uses.
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We strived to use 1880's technology - before the gas engine and electricity.  This would allow locals to continue to use our methods even after we left.  This is also useful knowledge in the event that power went out in the US for a period of time.  Low tech = sustainable.
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In Afghanistan many people lost their knowledge of farming due to 30-years of war.  Many cannot read or write so in the past they learned from their elders passing on knowledge.  This chain of information was deeply impacted by war...loss of life, being displaced from their homes and/or living in refugee camps has all but wiped out the current population's knowledge of farming.  Similarly, here in the US we see a disconnect between the consumer and the producer, how many people still have a connection to farming or even know someone that farms?  

To begin re-teaching the basics of farming we put the word out for villagers to come to a field day.
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We had a good farmer turnout for our field day where we demonstrated each step of starting a garden or small-scale farm.  Here we are putting fertilizer in a small bed then mixing it in with the soil.  
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Some of our projects got quite large and involved a lot of people.  It was good to to see the community coming together.  There is a real benefit to pooling resources and knowing who you can count on, what their abilities are and also identifying your own skill set.
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Bed preparation:  In a dry climate, you make planting beds with a dike around them to hold water in, whereas in a wet/tropical climate you plant on a raised bed so water runs off.  In a temperate climate, such a Iowa, you plant on the flat.
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Some beds were watered before planting.
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We held planting demos throughout the project.
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Our demonstration farms varied from ¼ acre to 3 acres in size. Planted were the main crops locals were accustomed to in AF.
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We left enough room for the creeper to get out.
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Weeds were not much of an issue in the dry areas so we did not have a need for pesticides.  This was a good thing since most of the pesticides came from Pakistan and you couldn’t be sure what was actually in the bottle – besides since many farmers could not read it would’ve been hard for them to maintain a regimen using pesticides.
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One thing we tried but did not work well was this stair garden, which dried out much too fast in this desert climate.  This set up would work much better in a wet climate.
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Working in the desert climate it was extremely important to water only what needed to be watered, never waste water.  Over watering could also be problematic because you want the plant roots to go down in search of natural water sources.  We got lots of buy-in from the villages; many kids would come and play - a good sign in AF.  If kids were out it meant that you could expect to have a good day free from violence.
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Harvest: We were able to increase yields more than 300% utilizing only the tools and technology available to the local population at each project location.  Was it sustainable? Yes.  We ensured sustainability through teaching and leaving behind the “know-how” to repeat the process.
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If you are unsure of the crop you’re planting, start small.  A 4x4 foot area is enough to see success but not too much to lose if it doesn’t work out.  You always learn from mistakes.
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The average size farm in Afghanistan is 1 to 3 acres and sustains a family of eight.  Each farm is fenced or walled to maintain security.
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Security for your property is very important to keep in mind when planning your garden/farm layout.  Livestock and wild animals can wreak havoc on crops.  Additionally, other people can also become a threat under the right conditions.  For example, what if you had food and you neighbor had none?
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All in all my experience in Afghanistan was very positive.  There were some close calls…
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but, I also got to meet a lot of interesting people.
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We accomplished our mission and, through our work, reduced conflict, which saved lives!
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I hope you found this informative and if you have any questions, let me know. -- Combat Farmer

Pic's did not load but that was a very interesting read. I feel for those people they really bust their asses off with very little Promise that thing will work out. Hats off to you for helping pass knowledge along.

Nice work!

I still maintain someone needs to make that place a big game preserve.  Private game managers don't fuck around and if they can keep a bunch of motivated boozed up rednecks out of their land then the Taliban shouldn't be a problem

Excellent first post!

Thanks for checking out my post so quickly.  I fixed the problem with the images so you can now get the whole picture.

Really neat pictures! Thank you for posting this!

Awesome.  Thanks for sharing.

That's one heck of a first post!

Thank you for sharing your experiences.
I'm curious, what kinds of crops (besides poppies, lol) are the most popular and "doable" where you were?

Thanks for posting, and welcome to the site!

Very interesting. Thanks OP.

Possibly the coolest post I've ever read on Arf!

Thanks for taking the time to share all that.

Well, I'm impressed!!!

You are doing good things over there.

Excellent first post, probably the best I've seen since I've been here.

Awesome first post,

Awesome post.  Thanks for sharing.

... great post!

Pretty cool stuff

I don't grow anything but I read every word of your post.

Very good read!

It looks like there is a lot more pre-planting work making the little walls, dams etched. But then less work later on with weeding.  

I'm also curious about the types of crops (beyond poppies) that work for these folk.

rsqhobbs and Chicken Daddy - We were in southern AF and found that grapes, pomegranates, corn, wheat, and a variety of beans all grew well. Also, we had good yields with all kinds of vegetables.

OP - Thanks for sharing.  That's pretty cool.  I knew there was an NG unit from SC that went over to work on a similar project.  

That is absolutely awesome! Talk about a positive influence on the locals! Congratulations on a job well done...
Would you mind if I shared this story and pictures (as motivation) with some friends in S. Africa? We have a problem there with locals being "awarded" farms and then having absolutely no clue what to do with the land. This has been going on for almost 20 years now and the stupid govt. there just can't figure out how to get these people to farm properly - buy them tractors - they sell the tractors the next day. Give them seed and the mice get to it. Give them cattle - they trade it for women (wives) or booze. I kid you not. Just maybe, a story like this could motivate the right people to get involved and train some folks to do things the right way around.

Very informative thanks for posting.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.  That was a really interesting first post.

Mind if I ask what your background is?

Boerseun - It would be fine with me if you forward this complete post.  Hopefully it will be of use and you'll start to see positive changes.

Very Cool!
Its good to see stuff like this going on. I don't watch the news anymore because its always full of negative stuff. So reading this was really informative and shows that there are good things happening over there.

Hopefully it works out for them and they use the knowledge.

Thank You for sharing!

fantastic post.

Thank you! I hope the resukts you achieved were of the lasting kind....

combatfarmer
Did you learn anything from them worthwhile, farming related?  Techniques?  Uses?  Productive Crops?

Great post OP.  Very interesting.

Wight_Hat  -  My Background comes from a long family history, being part of a team and then leading teams.  I’m 3rd generation of a family farm that started in 1892, the international work started in the 1980s.  Combat farming began in 2004 in Afghanistan where I lead teams of combat farmers ending in 2012 with the military.  I’m considering set up Combat Farming training sites in different locations in the states, to help people understand the importance of agriculture and at least being partly self-sufficient going in a troubled part of our history. God Bless America!  
-- Combat Farmer

OP, awesome thread!  Thank you for posting it.  I come from a long line of Hungarian farmers though I didn't go into farming myself.

Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

RRA15 -
We helped many villages increase the quality and quantity of their crops 4 to 5 times over just by using inputs that were available in the area.  

Additionally, there were techniques and farm related information we picked up from locals in AF that can work in the US. For example, filling a planting hole half-full of chicken manure when you are going to plant a new grape root makes the grapes taste better. We also learned that alfalfa, grapes and pomegranates all originated in that part of the world, which is why they’re able to grow well in that climate.

I’m sure there’s more that can be added to this list, but these are some of the values the AF people hold that I felt were the most applicable to farming/life in the US:

• People can get by with very little and be happy.  I was amazed how little people had yet were very happy.  


• Respect your elders.


• The village is more important than the state; what affects their small area like flooding, or fighting was much more important to the locals than events or policy changes happening in the capital. Villages do not count on, nor are they dependent on, the state.  


• Trust is very important. Establishing a positive relationship and earning the trust of the locals by giving them a chance to know us led to improved safety conditions for our team.  The people we worked with would not let anything happen to us and would even take us around to various places most Americans are not able to access.

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I guess it boils down to know your neighbors – and be respectful - you never know when you will have to count on them.
-- Combat Farmer

Are there many crop-destroying insects in that part of the world and how are they controlled if at all?

What about plant diseases?

coug91 - We worked on a project for the NG from Mississippi, a great bunch of guys!

-- Combat Farmer

OP,

1)  I remember reading that the U.S. government was providing fertilizer, including ammonium nitrate, to farmers so they could grow crops that were nitrogen hogs like corn instead of poppies.  I know you focused on local manure to use as fertilizer since it makes them self-sufficient.  What exactly did you hear about the diversion of ammonium nitrate used as IED's?

2) Do they raise a lot of chickens?  For meat?  For eggs?

Karzai banned ammonium nitrate imports in 2010.  I remember it very well as I was in Iraq and... well.  Anyway, shit happens.


 

Cool.  I remember reading that it came in from Pakistan, but so does everything else!

General speaking there are not many insects or plant diseases in southern AF due to the dryness in the spring and summer. There is always an exception though, like if you get a late spring or summer rain then insects and disease can come out and are devastating to many of the plants/trees.

Diseases and insect problems also can be artificially produced in valleys where water is available and farmers over water their crops.  

We were somewhat limited with our remedies for dealing with insects and disease and, in many cases, farmers did not know what to do and ended up doing nothing.  Pesticides could be brought in from Pakistan, but this wasn’t really a good option since they were usually of poor quality or miss marked and quite expensive.  Some of the truly small-scale farmers would pick bugs off plants, which was inefficient and not very effective either.  One thing that worked well was to trap the insects; we came up with sugar water solution, which we put in used water bottles and placed them strategically around the fields/plots.

--Combat Farmer

1 - Most green areas that you see in the photos are in or near valleys where there are water sources. As for irrigation methods, we employed their old methods so AF farmers can maintain them - like diverting water from a river into canals then into smaller canals. There were also Karez water systems (also called Qanats); these are made up of a series of vertically dug wells that are linked by underground water canals to collect water from nearby mountains. (more info on Karez at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat)

All modern irrigation systems failed; they became clogged with dirt, the cost of repairs was too high, there was lack of parts to make repairs and limited knowledge of how to operate the system made sustained use impossible.

2 – Multi-acre farms were 1 to 3 acres in size; these would feed a family of 8 to 10 people the basic foods necessary to stay healthy.

Many of the villages were very remote and did not have the opportunity to sell into bigger markets – the cost of transport was just too high. In some cases the villages had small markets but people had little money to buy anything.

Commercial crops were grapes and pomegranates; with those, the buyers went to the producer. We did work on all aspects of these crops: grading, sorting, packing and marketing. We also encouraged storing the crop and in most cases the fruits were dried to increase shelf life.      

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--Combat Farmer

C-4

1- US Gov was providing fertilizer under various AF programs but not ammonium nitrate.

coug91 is right about ammonium nitrate being band.  It still makes its way across the border, not in large volumes, but enough that it’s a problem. We had to work with some farmers after their urea fertilizer was destroyed (the team thought it was something else). It was a challenge to get the farmers back on the right page. After that we developed a field test to check for nitrogen fertilizers; it’s fast and easy and only involves a half-full water bottle. I don't know this site well enough yet to know how best to share an informational video on this, but I’ll look into it.

It’s definitely a tough situation in which to find balance. You don’t want to take the farmer’s fertilizer away unless you have to because you may be taking away their livelihood in growing legitimate crops. If that’s done then what will he have left to do to make money or feed his family?  The alternatives are reverting to illegal crops or make money to buy food by joining the bad guys.  In addition to sustainability, this is why we preferred using manure...there are no questions, and it’s safe.

It also helps if the villagers like you.  When you've earned their trust, there are a lot less problems.


2 - Chickens are raised for meat and eggs mostly in back yards of local compounds.  There were a few very skinny cows for milk and when they no longer produce milk they are used for meat.  In the area we were in, goats were the number two source of meat. Locals would also milk a few of the goats.

Sheep were the number one source of meat.  Even after being in AF for 7 years, it still surprised me how little a sheep could live on.

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Woman and children raise most livestock.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

--Combat Farmer

Thank you!

We see a lot of rivers in Afghanistan pictures.  How important is fish in their diet?  Do they raise them at all in ponds ie. diverting water from rivers/streams?  Is there any kind of aquaculture?  (I've got a thread here where I dabble in some home aquaponics).

Can you elaborate on your relationship to the military and what kind of team you worked with? You were there for seven years?

The first time I flew out of Kuwait I met an agriculture team from the National Guard. I'm curious how they fit in and if they were effective.

Also, how did you relate to the units in your area? Was your assistance traded for influence in any way?

There are many rivers in AF that produce a lot of water from snowmelt. Overall fish are not that important to the diet but in isolated villages, fishing is important to the local economy. In the north, I have seen where they used flood plains to make fish ponds, not sure how successful that project was.

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I don’t know a lot about aquaculture, I went to your and thread and found it very interesting!

--Combatfarmer

Combat_Jack

I was in AF full time for 7 years and learned a lot; we worked with the non-conventional coalition forces.

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The NG ADT was a different tool in the toolbox, the biggest difference - we did not have force protection.  We had a great relationship with the teams in our area but my group lived local and acted local.  Once some local people came to know us and we built up trust, we were accepted by all in the village. Then other nearby villages started requesting we come and help them – the inkblot grew.  

--Combat Farmer

Thank you  I figured I'd ask.

Outstanding post! Thank for sharing!

Great pictures and information.  Thank you very much for sharing it with us.  Outstanding in every way.

Combat Farmer, did you work with a Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT)?

I am curious, I was in Maiwand District, Kandahar Province back in 2010 and your pictures look familiar to me. They look similar to an Afghan Ag Education Center that was being constructed in the Hutal near a US Combat Outpost.

When I was there the main cash crop was Opium Poppy with a secondary wheat crop for local consumption. I have lots of pictures of poppy and wheat plots and lots of memories of talking with the local farmers over the price of poppy just like I talk to those here in NC about price of soy beans and corn.

Exactly. That was cool.