010430Z PRT NANGARHAR, PRT CA AND USAID ATTENDED MONTHLY AG TWG

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY PRT Jalalabad APO AE 09354 06 August 2007 MEMORANDUM THRU Civil Affairs OIC, PRT Jalalabad, APO AE 09354 Commander, PRT Jalalabad, APO AE 09354 SUBJECT: Trip Report for Agriculture Technical Working Group meeting 1. SUMMARY. Civil Affairs (CA) and USDA attended the monthly Agriculture TWG meeting held at the Department of Agriculture (42S XD 34196 10615). 2. BACKGROUND a. General. The Agriculture TWG is a meeting held monthly to coordinate all agriculture activities in the provinces. The meeting is chaired by the Director of Agriculture, Mohammad hussain Safi, and is attended by all organizations conducting agriculture projects in the province. This is Mr. Safis second month as Director of Agriculture (DoA) in Nangarhar. Mr. Safi was the previous DoA in Laghman Province. b. Mission Specifics. (1) This months meeting had the following agenda: 1) Review of last meetings minutes; 2) Training Center in Directorate of Agriculture premises; 3) Training for Agriculture Department Employees (Capacity Building Program); 4) Darunta Fishery Project and 5) Any other business. (2) During discussion of last meetings minutes, Mr. Safi explained that he has met with the Poppy Eradication Program (PEP) as well as other farmers and many are willing to grow an alternative crop, but the seed is not available. In response to this, Mr. Safi was asking for help from any organization in acquiring winter wheat seed to distribute to farmers. There are two organizations that have a total of 188 metric tons of seed to distribute. The two organizations are going to work through the DoA to distribute the seeds. There was also a discussion on the price of the winter wheat seed. The price of seeds in Jalalabad is different than the price in Kabul, which should not be the case since the Ministry of Agriculture sets the price for the country. (3) One of Mr. Safis top priorities is to establish an agriculture training center in Nangarhar, much like the one he established in Laghman. Mr. Safi commented that Nangarhar is a much larger province with many more farmers; therefore the need for a large facility is critical. The DoA says that there is enough space inside the agriculture compound to build a facility. Mr. Safi is seeking help form any agency that is willing. The facility is needed, but the training (capacity building) program has already been implemented with assistance from DAI. The curriculum has already been established, but the DoA is forced to limit the number of farmers that can attend due to the lack of space. (4) There is a Japanese NGO (name not recorded) that has a program to improve rice production. The program is targeting small scale farmers. 3. Additional Data and Analysis This is the first Agriculture TWG that the PRT has attended since the new director took office and right away there has been a noticeable difference in the way Mr. Safi runs his meetings. All TWGs are designed to have the director of that particular office take the lead during the meetings. Unlike Agriculture TWGs in the past, Mr. Safi had great control of the meeting and did not let attendees get too far off topic. This was also the first meeting for Will Wilson, the new PRT USDA representative. The DoA was very excited to meet Will and asked about the agriculture PRT that is supposed to be coming. 4. Point of Contact for this memorandum is CPT Middleton at DSN 481-7341. Maurice Z. Middleton CPT, CA CAT-B Team Leader