Members of the Iowa National Guard’s 734th Agribusiness Development Team take a small farm tractor to the demonstration farm in the Marawara District May 15. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Capt. Peter Shinn, 734th Agribusiness Development Team)
By 1st Lt. Scott Rottinghaus
Production Agriculture Specialist, 734th Agribusiness Development Team
A couple of days ago, the Iowa Agribusiness Development Team went to the demonstration farm we’ve established in the Marawara District to demonstrate mechanical wheat harvesting. Here in Kunar Province, almost all agriculture is done by hand, from planting to weed control to harvest. It’s not very efficient, which is why we wanted to show local farmers some of the benefits of small-scale mechanization.
Small-scale mechanization is all that’s appropriate in this part of Afghanistan, because the fields are so small. You’d never be able to use the kind of large farm implements we have in the U.S. over here. But we do have a small, diesel-powered tractor manufactured by a Chinese company called Changfawang. In fact, a non-governmental organization is planning to distribute over 6,000 of these tractors to Afghan farmers over the next year, which is another reason we wanted to get local farmers familiar with it.
When we got to the demo farm, things went well at first. We got the tractor down into the field. But the field, which had been planted by hand, had never been leveled, so we had to make several adjustments to the wheat cutting attachment so it would clear the bumps but still cut the wheat. But just minutes after we’d gotten it adjusted properly, the attachment belt that drives the cutting blades broke. Someone suggested we run down to Tractor Supply and pick up another one, but of course, that’s not available here.
For the farmers, it wasn’t much of a demonstration, but it was an excellent lesson. Mechanized agriculture depends upon the ability to get spare parts. That’s true in the U.S. as well. When one of our tractors or combines breaks down, we’re able to get parts, or a repair technician, immediately. That’s not how it is here. So I sure hope the NGO that’s planning on distributing all those Changfawangs is also planning to make lots of spare parts available, too. Otherwise, plenty of spare parts will become available pretty quickly from all the tractors that break down, can’t be fixed and get salvaged for their parts.
