Let it grow: IFDC helps Afghan farmers bring home the harvest
 

Amit Roy, IFDC president and CEO, and Ross Everson, IFDC/Afghanistan chief of party, talk with a fertilizer dealer about the voucher program.  Photo courtesy IFDC

MUSCLE SHOALS -- The sorrow Amit Roy feels for the people of Afghanistan is obvious in his facial expressions as he talks about ruins of war he saw on a trip to the country.

"I've never seen devastation like I saw in Afghanistan," said Roy, president and chief executive officer of IFDC, an International Center for Soil Fertility and Agriculture Development. "The people of Afghanistan have had to endure many hardships over the years, and they are still suffering."

The country has been heavily damaged by more than 20 years of wars - first against the Soviet Union, then between factions within the country and in recent months against the United States and its allies seeking to root out terrorists. However, Roy's face glows when he talks about the seeds of hope IFDC is helping sow in the war-torn country.

In April and May, IFDC helped more than 60,000 Afghan farmers obtain fertilizer for their spring wheat crop. The farmers received vouchers, which they could redeem at farm supply dealers for fertilizer.

The fertilizer helped boost the yield of the wheat crop by 3.6 million tons, an 80 percent increase over the 2001 harvest, Roy said. The additional wheat will help ease a food deficit that is plaguing Afghanistan.

He said the efforts by IFDC to help Afghanistan feed itself are drawing worldwide attention to the organization and the Shoals.

"We have an organization based here in Muscle Shoals that is right in the forefront of rebuilding the economy of Afghanistan," Roy said, beaming with pride.

By giving farmers vouchers instead of bags of fertilizer, the IFDC program is boosting the nation's economy by creating business for farm supply dealers, he said. But the aid to the farmers does not come without a price.

"The fertilizer is not free. What we are doing is really like making a loan to the farmers," Roy said.

In exchange for the fertilizer, each of the farmers who received the assistance must donate a bag of wheat seed to his local village's agriculture program, Roy said.

The farmers don't seem to mind giving up a bag of wheat for each sack of fertilizer they receive from the IFDC program. For most, fertilizer is a luxury they cannot afford, Roy said.

There are no banks in the country to loan farmers money for buying supplies such as fertilizer, he added. As a result, most would grow their wheat without using any fertilizer, and the yield would be low.

Money for the fertilizer program comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

IFDC is now distributing vouchers to the farmers that they will redeem for fertilizer for their fall wheat crop.

The planting season begins in late September.

The spring wheat had been planted when the farmers received the fertilizer vouchers. The farmers placed the fertilizer on wheat plants that were already growing.

By using fertilizer when the fall wheat crop is planted, Roy said, the yield could receive an even larger boost.

"They should see some really big yields, but a lot will depend on how much rainfall they receive," said Feisal Beig, an IFDC senior marketing specialist.

"But if the farmers do get good rainfall, with the fertilizer they will be using, their wheat fields should do very well."

Roy said the additional grain is needed in Afghanistan as many residents who fled the years of fighting there are returning.

Many organizations are sending food to Afghanistan to make up for the shortfall between what the farmers can grow and what the people need. By providing fertilizer and technical assistance to the farmers, he said IFDC is hopeful Afghanistan can become self-sufficient in feeding its people.

Beig said Afghanistan was able to produce all of its food and export some until the Soviet Union invaded the country in 1979. Since then, food production has fallen short of demand, and hunger has been rampant.

As part of its assistance to the Afghan farmers, IFDC is translating books on crop production into Afghan languages, Roy said.

Most of the books in the country were burned by the Taliban government, which ruled from 1996 until this year.

Beig said agriculture is Afghanistan's only path to economic advancement. And IFDC's work is helping turn the country's dream of better quality of life into a reality.

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