Email   Print   Share By Spc. Eric-James Estrada, 4th BCT, 25th Inf. Div. Public Affairs

Facebook Digg Delicious August 16, 2012 | Across DoD

Members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Paktya tend to a garden inside a qalat on FOB Gardez. The garden is one method used to show the people in Paktya province what agricultural developments their land is capable of producing. Spc. Eric-James Estrada, 4th BCT, 25th Inf. Div. Public Affairs

PAKTYA PROVINCE, Afghanistan - Members of the Provincial Reconstruction Team Paktya at Forward Operating Base Gardez, use a homegrown garden to demonstrate the potential for agricultural development in the mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan’s Paktya province.

Introduced in 2002, the PRT unit usually consists of military officers, diplomats and reconstruction subject-matter experts, working to support reconstruction efforts in unstable regions. The PRT’s primary purpose, of enabling local administrations to govern their citizens more efficiently, is accomplished through programs such as agricultural development.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. R. John Morse, commander of PRT Paktya, says the PRT’s mission is to effectively mentor and help educate Afghan provincial counterparts in their performance of planning, budget formulation, budget execution and monitoring. The goal is to set a foundation for future economic growth.

“One of our biggest successes has been in the agricultural front. And really you have to be able to create something to show in order to have some success with our Afghan partners, so that we can educate them, mentor them in the development of their activities,” Morse said. “So, we have this garden here, which has really taken on a life of its own.”

Mohammad-Arif Afrid, a linguist and cultural adviser with PRT Paktya, has been working with the PRT since August 2010. He has been one of the primary caretakers of the garden and described his first time entering the qalat as depressing.

“The qalat was a total disaster. Two of my friends and I thought that we wouldn’t be able spend a month here,” Afrid said. “We started digging the ground and started to plant vegetables, fruit and flowers and such. And that was good. It gave us good results.”

According to Jose Sanchez, USDA Agricultural adviser with PRT Paktya, the garden helps everyone, not just the local populace, to appreciate and understand what the region is capable of developing through good old-fashioned hard work and sweat.

“Many times we just go out for a few hours and the Soldiers are inside a vehicle, and they pretty much don’t have an opportunity to appreciate what can be grown in this region,” Sanchez said. “By having a garden here inside the FOB, it allows all of us to see how capable the potential of this region can produce a good quality agricultural product, especially fruits.”

Morse said the sight of the garden aids in highlighting the PRT’s key goals that will lead local administrators to have further confidence in leading their people more efficiently.

“Everywhere you look there is something growing. Something that someone is trying to make come out of this tough ground here in Afghanistan,” Morse said.