An advisor from the Afghan Department of Agriculture demonstrates the techniques necessary to managing bee colonies in Afghanistan’s Konar province.

Many Afghans are subsistence farmers who teeter on the edge of malnutrition or starvation every year.

In Afghanistan’s Konar province, one of the most violent provinces in the country, an American provincial reconstruction team is working with the Afghan government on a unique solution to help feed its people: bees.

Experts from the Konar Department of Agriculture maintain a number of small beehives throughout Konar Valley and are working to expand the reach of the pollinators. They hope not only to breed more bees, but also to build more beehives to be distributed among more farmers, officials said. With the help of the Konar PRT and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Afghan government has been distributing sugar to existing beehives to increase their population.

The Afghan government has provided more than 300 pounds of sugar to local beekeepers and farmers, officials said. Government officials expressed the hope that with pollination help from the bees in the spring, crop yields in the immediate area might go up by at least 10 percent.

The idea is not as far-fetched as it may sound. Beekeeping is a $9 billion industry in the United States, according to the University of Georgia’s Web site. Bee hives are bought, sold and rented out across the country.

In Canada, if a blueberry farmer hopes to increase profit, he reportedly can get a return of $41 per every dollar spent on renting bees for pollination, and an apple farmer can get upwards of $192 per dollar. The Konar government hopes to get a similar return for its investment.

Through pollination, bees have been known to increase crop yields by as much as 25 percent. Other plants, such as almond trees, must have a pollinator to even produce.

Bees also produce raw materials for the Afghan people to trade and barter. Honey is an obvious product of successful hives, and is especially valuable in Afghanistan because it is one of the few agricultural products that does not have to be stored in cold temperatures. Honey can be easily consumed, sold or exported to nearby provinces.

Beeswax — a primary component in candles, cosmetics, polishes and pharmaceuticals — also is a valuable commodity, officials noted.

DoD
By Navy Lt. j.g. James Dietle
Special to American Forces Press Service
(Navy Lt. j.g. James Dietle serves with the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team.)

Click photo for screen-resolution image Provincial reconstruction team members speak with Afghan children during a mission in Afghanistan's Konar province. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Russell Gilchrest

The provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Konar province is working to restore an irrigation system in the province’s Manawara district that has become a casualty of decades of war.

The ancient Karez system, comprising 12 wells and numerous aqueducts, uses river water and underground spring water to irrigate crops in the area. During the Soviet-Afghan war that began in 1978 and ended in 1989, the Soviets bombed the system to prevent Afghan fighters from transporting weapons and ammunition through its tunnels.

“The age, bombardment by the Soviets and its depth below the surface make it difficult to survey and repair the wells in Manawara district,” Navy Lt. j.g. James Dietle, an Omaha, Neb., native with the Konar PRT, said. “The team believes there is a blockage in the tunnel preventing the water from getting to the crops. We are trying to help find and fix the kink.”

Local residents have been assisting with inspections and construction, Dietle said. The project will have a direct benefit for residents, he noted, since a system rejuvenation will lead to an increase in crop yields.

Although thje community normally conducts system maintenance, the PRT is providing a kick-start to get the Karez system functioning again.

“This project has quickly become one of our favorites; it’s a relatively low-cost project with a measureable impact of improving irrigation to the community,” said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Robert Ross, Konar PRT commander and Bonney Lake, Wash., native. “This project is a high priority for the local government and the PRT. They will see the immediate benefit of their efforts in time for the spring planting season.”

A provincial reconstruction team member inspects a well in Afghanistan's Konar province. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Russell Gilchrest

DoD
By Army Sgt. Charles Brice
(Army Sgt. Charles Brice serves in the 1st Infantry Division’s 3rd Brigade Combat Team public affairs office.)
Special to American Forces Press Service
U.S. Army photos by Spc. Russell Gilchrest

The Konar River runs for 150 km and serves as a natural border between eastern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. Although the villages along the eastern and western banks of the river are part of Konar, the river reinforces cultural and political alliances between Afghans on the eastern shore and tribesmen across the border in Pakistan. The people on the east have had very little connection to the provincial government.

To resolve this problem, the Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team has embarked on a bridge-building strategy to connect the Afghan government to the five provincial districts on the east of the Konar River. Until recently Afghans in Khas Konar, Sarkani, Naray, Marawara and Dangam Districts looked to Pakistan for cultural affiliation, services and trade.

Currently the two bridges connecting the eastern side of the river with the west are in Nawabad and Asmar. These bridges are the only means of vehicle access to the provincial center. The five new bridges under construction by the PRT are the Guryak, Khas Konar, Marawara, Bar Sholtan and Saw Bridge. The new bridges will accommodate two-way commercial truck traffic and will connect residents from the isolated areas along Pakistan’s border with the rest of Konar.

Navy Lt. Matthew Myers, Konar PRT Engineer, said that all construction work is being performed by local Afghan companies.

“These projects demonstrate that Afghan engineers are capable of building large scale and technically-challenging projects,” Myers said.

Myers also reported that residents on both sides of the river enthusiastically support the bridges.

“Due to the popularity of the bridges there have been no attacks on the projects,” Myers said. “Each bridge has an estimated lifetime of 60 years so the benefits will last for generations of Afghans.”

“The bridges will further legitimize the Afghan Government to the people in these areas, showing that the Afghan government is capable of bringing large-scale infrastructure projects to an area neglected by 30 years of war,” said Navy Cmdr. Daniel Dwyer, Konar PRT commander.

Construction is on time and on budget. The five bridges will be completed between October 2008 and March 2009. Gov. Sayeed Wahidi, Konar’s provincial governor, sees the five bridges as transformational, he said.

“These bridges will give [the Afghan National Security Forces] access to the most problematic areas of Konar,” Sayeed said. “They will disrupt the insurgency along the border districts and will connect the Afghan citizens to markets, health care and the provincial government.”

CJTF-101
Written by Navy Lt. Neil Myers, Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team

The first girls’ school in Kandigal Village celebrated an opening ceremony with elders from all over the river valley June 14, in Konar Province, Afghanistan.

The new $200,000, 400-seat Kandigal Girls School was funded by the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, also known as Task Force Rock.

Gov. Hajji Sayed Wahidi, Konar, and a number of other Konar provincial government officials were joined by Lt. Col. William Ostlund, Task Force Rock commander, and Navy Cmdr. Daniel W. Dwyer, Konar Provincial Reconstruction Team commander.

“Girls schools are the first priority for the government because unfortunately when Afghanistan was in the hands of the Taliban, the women were kept in the dark, and not allowed to come out of their homes for learning,” said Wahidi. “The women are in a very bad situation; therefore we believe now we need to do more for women, we should have some positive discrimination to increase activities for women.”

The Kandigal Girls School is a community success story, said Dwyer. The school was only possible through the cooperation of the Ministry of Education, the district and provincial government, the elders, and the Coalition forces working together.

“The community recognized and stated its number one priority for Kandigal Village was a girls school,” said Dwyer. “The government is addressing the needs of the people.”

Five schools are currently under construction in Konar province, and in the next several months the provincial government plans to build 15 more, according to Wahidi.

“We always try to make more facilities for girls in Konar province, we have 140,000 students going to school, and fortunately 40,000 are girls,” said Wahidi. “The number is still not bad, but I think if you provide the facilities, the number of girls and boys will be [50 percent of each].”

The Konar PRT, in conjunction with the ministry of education, will continue to fund the construction of new schools throughout the province, according to Dwyer.

“Konar province has 315 schools with only 115 buildings,” said Dwyer. “The Konar PRT will fund schools only along roads with already existing locations, whether it is a tarp, tent, or open air school.”

“A year ago Kandigal District had only two schools,” said Army Capt. Louis B. Frketic, with Headquarters and Headquarters Company. “The schools consisted of two teachers, and a collection of children sitting under trees in the village center.”

“Afghan’s believe when you send a child to school, the education process ‘“the tailm”’ is a cleansing process,” said Frketic. “Where you wash away all the bad things from the children’s minds, you wipe away the 30 years of fighting from their minds.”

According to Frketic, building schools is only part of a grander scheme. The coalition forces are also building roads, power stations, health clinics, pipe schemes, bridges, and wells, in support of the Afghan government.

U.S. Dept. of State representative Alison Blosser, spoke on behalf of the Konar PRT, and in their native language, Pashtu. She addressed the elders during the celebration ceremony about the importance of women’s education. It is a good step for the Afghans to be educating Konar’s future women doctors and provincial council members, she said.

“The Kandigal Girls School celebration was actually a fantastic event,” said Blosser. “The bulk of the time was the Afghanistan government officials speaking about the importance of community participation in government, and they really stole the show.”

According to Blosser, Kandigal Village is a strategic village because it sits between two decisive valleys, the Korengal Valley and the Pech Valley. Now that coalition forces have built strong relations with the elders by giving them something to develop their children, and develop their future.

“The significance of Kandigal Village is that it sits at the mouth of the Korengal Valley, and the Korengal Valley is the place in Konar province where probably our toughest fight has been for the last five years,” said Blosser. “One important thing about the Kandigal Girls School is over the past two years we’ve been trying to gain the trust and confidence of the Korengalis, and what we have been trying to do in Kandigal Village is demonstrate all the benefits development can bring.”

DVIDS
By Spc. Gregory J. Argentieri
173rd Airborne Brigade Public Affairs