UBC Reports | Vol. 50 | No. 9 | Oct.
7, 2004
UBC Education Alum Helps Restore Afghanistan Agriculture
By Erica Smishek
Proving that you can go home again, UBC alumnus Tooryalai
(Toor) Wesa traveled to Afghanistan this summer as part of
an international effort to revitalize his former country’s
agriculture system after two decades of war.
At the invitation of the University of California Davis,
Wesa trained 40 Afghanistan-native agricultural specialists
(or “extension agents”) on issues related to grape
growing, including use of chemicals, irrigation, picking,
cleaning, storing and packaging. These agents will then train
the country’s grape growers.
“It’s exciting to be there and to see the impact
these kinds of programs are having,” says Wesa, who
received his PhD in Educational Studies, with a focus on adult
education, from UBC in 2002. “I’m more effective
there in Afghanistan than I am here.”
Born in Kandahar in 1950, Wesa received a bachelor of science
degree in agricultural economics and extension from Kabul
University in the early 1970s and a master of science from
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1977. He taught for
many years at Kabul University, advised the Afghan government,
the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations
and international NGOs, and served as the first President
of Kandahar University for 10 months before leaving the country
with his physician wife and three young daughters at the end
of 1991.
After a period in Hungary and Switzerland, the family came
to Canada and Wesa ended up at UBC. His work this year in
Afghanistan (he had two other short-term assignments in the
winter and spring) is a logical extension of his UBC PhD thesis,
which focused on the Soviet occupation’s devastating
impact on the agricultural infrastructure and, in particular,
the educational component of agricultural extension. To collect
data, he interviewed and surveyed expatriate Afghanis who
worked in during the Soviet occupation.
“My UBC classmates were worried about my country and
wondered why I wanted to pursue my PhD thesis on the agricultural
extension system there. They didn’t think it would ever
return to normal life and were concerned I would never get
the opportunity to apply my experience there,” says
Wesa.
“But I believe that without strong extension programs,
there is very little hope for renewal. I believe in my people.
I believe in my country. I thought that hopefully when I finished
my PhD, I could go back and share my expertise.
“I was in the last stages of my thesis when September
11 happened. Suddenly there was international interest in
Afghanistan.”
Following 9/11 and the subsequent armed conflict, there
was also international demand for someone with Wesa’s
agricultural expertise, his knowledge of the language, culture
and traditions of the country, and his contacts. After teaching
a course in UBC’s Dept. of Asian Studies in fall 2002,
Wesa contacted various international organizations, educational
institutions and companies about opportunities in Afghanistan.
He eventually completed three short-term assignments in the
country for Chemonics International, a global consulting firm
that performs its work under contract to the U.S. Agency for
International Development and other bilateral and multilateral
aid donors.
Wesa has been able to bridge the gap between local Afghanis
and the non-Afghanis who are part of the international effort
to revitalize the country.
“Those who are really working in agriculture or any
other development sector -- they are welcome,” he explains.
“But if they have religious or political issues on the
side, people are skeptical and try not to get very close to
them. If it’s purely a reconstruction issue, and if
people are honest, hardworking and committed, the Afghan people
will have respect for them.”
Agriculture is central to Afghanistan’s economy, with
more than 70 per cent of the population associated with the
sector. Prior to years of conflict and drought, Afghans were
self-sufficient in wheat production -- the country’s
main crop. Wheat must now be imported.
According to many in the international renewal effort, one
of the challenges of reviving the agricultural sector and
moving it quickly towards self-sustainability is to give farmers
an alternative to poppy cultivation, which provides the raw
material for opium and heroin. A recent report released by
the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime indicates that
opium production in Afghanistan is estimated at 3,400 metric
tons. Poppies are estimated to earn approximately eight times
more income per hectare than wheat, with less water and fewer
inputs.
“Farmers are not interested in poppies,” says
Wesa. “It goes against religious and social norms. They
want alternatives. If other economic sources are introduced
to the farmer, the farmer will grow other crops. Right now,
the warlords are forcing them to grow poppies. They are held
hostage by the warlords. Farmers want a normal life for themselves
and for their children.”
Grapes are just one of many horticultural crops that can
provide a high-income alternative to poppy cultivation. Such
crops address the country’s own food and nutritional
needs while also producing something for the international
market.
In addition to crop alternatives, most experts agree that
restoring Afghanistan agriculture will take improved technology,
capital, suitable marketing channels for surplus products,
equal development and working opportunities for Afghan women,
and protection of natural resources.
Wesa says capacity building is not a priority for most international
organizations. But he believes educating extension agents
and farmers on issues such as orchard, farm and family management,
tree crops, and post-harvest technology is key to a renewal
plan.
“You have to train people first, then bring the technology,”
says Wesa, who knows first-hand how years of conflict have
taken a toll on education and the very composition of Afghan
society.
“The main problem is the lack of professional people,”
he explains. “We lost three or four generations.
“Any child born since the first day of the Soviet-backed
government [April 27, 1978; the actual Soviet occupation occurred
December 27, 1979] has had almost no formal education. There
is no infrastructure now. There are no classrooms. There are
no libraries. There are no teachers. There are no labs. Kabul
University, as the mother of all universities within the country,
is nothing more than a high school, with limited qualified
faculties, a lack of research facilities and academic journals,
and few teachers qualified to teach foreign languages.”
Wesa intends to continue to participate in international
renewal efforts in Afghanistan. And he hopes his own children
-- now 18, 21, and 22 and all students at UBC (the oldest
in medicine, the others at the Sauder School of Business)
-- will travel there to share their expertise one day.
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