Charikar Goes Green

PARWAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Shah Mirza Amiri, the Director of Agriculture Irrigation and Livestock, and members of the Kentucky Agribusiness Development team, opened two new greenhouses in Charikar, Afghanistan, May 26.

Local elders from Charikar, along with members of the Brotharon Tawfiq Construction company, and many local citizens turned out to see their new buildings.

The greenhouse project took very little time from planning to completion, and they look forward to setting up more greenhouses in the near future.

“It took less than two weeks to set these up,” said U.S Army Lt. Col Toby Peterson, the ADT chief. “We plan on putting up more of these in different places.”

They plan on using the new greenhouses as a training platform for many different aspects of agribusiness developments in the future.

“This is just the beginning phases of this project,” said Peterson, a Lexington, Ky., resident.  “We plan on using them as a teaching, training and demonstration tool for the DAIL. He can teach the local villagers how to extend their growing season and how to properly use the greenhouses.”

Along with the agricultural benefits, they see other opportunities for training in irrigation and soil management.
“You notice they both have a drip irrigation system,” said Peterson.

“This (the drip system) starts teaching the Afghans about proper water management. They already have a good base knowledge on it; we are going to let the DAIL run with it and be there to provide technical support as needed."

This project should lead the people of Charikar and the surrounding areas toward better use of resources and advance their ability to grow crops for their people. It is one of many projects the Afghan Government and the ADT initiated in the Province of Parwan, and one they hope will bring education and bountiful crops for a very long time.