Small Town News

Ben Groth leaves a peaceful Iowa family farm for what will be a far-different experience

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Ben Groth won't be helping harvest corn on his family's Woodbury County farm this fall. Instead, the 22-year-old will help Afghanistan farmers improve their farming methods.

It's part of an effort to reduce rural poverty and raise farm incomes there.

"It's a different mission than we usually have, " said Groth, a staff sergeant with the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City. He studied ag business at Iowa Western Community College and now farms with his dad, near Moville.

"With my background in ag, it allows me to use what I know on the civilian side to do the mission, " he said.

Groth was chosen to serve in the Iowa Air National Guard's 734th Agri-Business Development Team. It's made up of more than 60 Iowa Army National Guard and Air National Guard members who have a variety of agricultural, construction, and engineering skills.

The team is the first joint mission in the history of the Iowa Guard, according to its commander, Col. Craig Bargfrede of Ankeny.

"We were looking for people with skill sets in their civilian lives that could help with the mission, " he explained.

Team members began training for the mission in January. They spent 4 days in Ames last week, seeing hands-on demonstrations of basic crop and animal production practices at Iowa State University's field extension laboratory.

The itinerary included sessions on soil fertility; wheat, corn, insect, and weed management; animal science; vegetable production; fruit and orchard management; high tunnels; and small-scale poultry production.

Not only was the ISU training specific to the conditions the team is likely to find in Afghanistan, it was also broadly based -- learning "a little bit about everything, " soldiers said.

"I thought I was prepared, but I feel a lot better now after this, " Groth said. "We got a real variety of basic skills we're going to need for there."

And the quality of the soldiers also added to the expertise of the team.

"This is the best, most well-trained mission I've been involved with, mainly because of the quality of people we're being deployed with, " said Captain Peter Smith, a former ag reporter who is handling communications for the unit. "What's unique about this is that we were not a unit until six months ago."

The team is a diverse cross-section of soldiers, ranging from newcomer Groth to veterans like Bargfrede and Chief Master Sergeant Don Kuehl, who each have three decades of experience with the Guard.

"The goal is to increase the sustainability of farmers in Afghanistan, " said Bargfrede. He has an agricultural education degree from South Dakota State, and also worked in the ag business for 14 years in Rock Rapids.

"We're here to help them build their agriculture infrastructure with different crops, " he said.

The Iowa unit is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan sometime in August. They will replace a California unit that's currently working with farmers, universities, and agribusiness in the Kunar province, on the eastern border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Like many other military operations, one of their first tasks will be to assess the situation after they arrive. Their projects will be driven by what the Afghan farmers need, in order to quickly improve the value and stainability of their crops and livestock productions.

Projects from prior Agri-Business Development Teams have included building dams to improve crop irrigation, building small-scale livestock slaughter facilities, and implementing a livestock vaccination program.

But Iowa conditions are nothing like Afghanistan's. Afghanistan rainfall averages about 8 inches per year, less than half the minimum of what that country's wheat crop will require.

Afghanistan has no mechanical irrigation, relying instead on soil and nutrient-wasting flood irrigation, similar to that used for rice.

There is no anhydrous ammonia to provide nitrogen, and no fancy biotech seeds of the type that Iowa farmers have come to depend on for ever-expanding yields.

Undernourishment is a problem for up to 40 percent of the population, reducing the kind of energy Iowa farmers take to their fields.

And finally, Iowa farmers don't work in fields surrounded by security forces, as will be the case when the guard team begins work in the northeast part of that nation.

The soldiers know they may be surprised at what they need to accomplish, and the tools they will have available to reach their goals.

"A lot depends on what their needs are. I don't think we can go in with any pre-conceived notions, " said Kuehl. He grew up on a crop and livestock farm near Mapleton, and spent 7 years working for a co-op there. He now lives in Jackson, Minnesota.

"Right now, most of what they have is sustenance farming, " he said. "We want to improve that, so they can improve their status."

I'm excited about it. I think it's going to be a tremendous learning experience" added Kuehl. "I really believe we have an opportunity to improve their day-to-day existence in life."

Farmers in that region typically produce only enough for their families, with little left over to sell. The average wheat yields there are about 19 bushels per acre there-less than half of the U.S. average last year (44.2 bushels).

"Wheat production is their center of gravity, " Bargfrede said. "If we can help them increase their wheat production, it will increase their food supply and, hopefully, their income."

"It's a very poor area, " he continued. Their average income is only about $400 to $500 per year."

The agriculture mission is part of the U.S. military's strategy of counter-insurgency. They hope to improve food security for ordinary Afghan residents.

Additionally, since about 85% of Afghanistan's economic activity is agriculture-related, the team is helping to revitalize Afghanistan's overall economy.

A going away ceremony for the 734th Agri-Business Development Team is planned for July 1. --From The Farm Bureau Spokesman and other newspaper sources



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