National Guard Agricultural Assistance Program in Afghanistan

Since 2006 the United States Army National Guard has been fielding agricultural assistance teams to various locations in Afghanistan. Their task is to work with individual farmers and agricultural officials to modernize and improve agriculture in Afghanistan. The 15 states in the program are mostly agriculturally-oriented states in the Midwest and South. One of the latest agricultural teams to deploy was from the Nebraska Army National Guard. This Afghan Agri-business Development Team worked with their Afghan counterparts in Helmand province - home of much of the poppy cultivation that feeds the Afghan drug trade. Read more on the Agri-business Development Team from Nebraska in "Sowing seeds of hope: Nebraska Guard team mentors Afghan ag officials", Omaha World-Herald, February 4, 2004.