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GHAZNI PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Planting Afghan evergreen trees can be very dangerous – if you're planting them during a rocket attack.
Anthony Miller, a Mesa, Ariz., resident and agricultural advisor with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, was planting small evergreens with a Soldier from the Texas Agribusiness Development Team at Forward Operating Base Ghazni during the afternoon of April 16 when the base came under attack.
A rocket, shot by insurgent forces, hit the farm and forced the two men to drop down in a shallow trench. A few moments later, they made it safely into one of the bunkers.
Miller, who has been in Ghazni since November 2009, is not a stranger to incoming fire.
"It feels like I've been at the farm 80 percent of the time that we have a rocket attack," he said.
The danger of farming under fire hasn't deterred Miller from working in the Texas ADT's experimental farm. The random incoming fire hasn't squelched his creativity either.
Recently, he discovered a new use for discarded issues of the Stars and Stripes newspapers that are sent to the troops on the base.
"I saw a whole pile of them just lying there, and I got an idea," he said. "You can't get bark, you can't get mulch in this country and you can't get the ground-up alfalfa. It's the only thing available that doesn't cost much."
Even after 30 years with the USDA, Miller is still learning new tricks of the trade. He now uses the newspapers in lieu of mulch, and he lays them around the base of the young apple trees. With sandy soil placed on top to hold the paper in place, the newspaper keeps weeds away and retains more moisture.
Water can be hard to come by in Afghanistan. Miller had originally started off with a pressurized water system that fed plenty of water to the plants. But, that system was cut off to conserve water when the base started to expand.
Now, Miller must manually carry water to a 1,200 gallon water tank that is at least 15 feet off the ground.
Miller's role as an agricultural advisor is to work with the Afghans and show the Afghan Department of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, new agricultural techniques that can be passed on to the district agents as they work with the public in the farms.
When Miller showed the DAIL agent, Sultan Hussein, his newspaper technique, the idea was met with enthusiasm. Now, it is up to the DAIL to relay the thrifty idea to the farmers off the base.
Miller also works on growing several plant species in the Texas ADT's experimental farm to include grapes, peaches, apricots, Afghan pines and arbor vitae, the tree of life. His small grain plants – rye, oats and wheat – grow in a trial plot.
Miller said he has seen the success Afghans farmers can achieve.
"These people know how to farm," he said.
He has watched them use poplar trees for stream bank stabilization.
"In the winter, when there are no leaves on them, they just cut off the tree, dig down in the gravel where it's wet, stick it in and walk away. The plant will grow roots and stay on the stream bank. When it floods, it won't wash from? away the stream bank."
"It's a pretty cool little tree, and they know that. They understand plant propagation. The U.S. wasn't even thinking of using that system until the late '50s, early '60s."
Miller leaves the base at least once a week with the Texas ADT or the Ghazni Provincial Reconstruction Team, but with a background in the U.S. Army, he moves about with the ease and confidence of a past soldier.
From 1975 to 1978, Miller served under the 82nd Airborne Division as a paratrooper. He deployed to Panama and witnessed the tension that existed when former President Jimmy Carter was transitioning control of the Panama Canal to the Panama government.
In a humorous twist of fate, he currently works with military members who fall under the 82nd Airborne Division in the eastern region of Afghanistan.
"It's been 35 years, but what goes around comes around. I had no idea the 82nd was over here," he laughed.
| Date Taken: | 05.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.15.2010 01:15 |
| Story ID: | 49709 |
| Location: | GHAZNI PROVINCE, AF |
| Web Views: | 319 |
| Downloads: | 311 |
This work, Farming under fire, by 1st Lt. Katherine Roling, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
