USDA vet sees animal nutrition as key to Afghan food security

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan – Maplecroft, a British risk management firm that works with the United Nations World Food Program, recently ranked Afghanistan as the most food insecure nation on earth. Dr. Tom Vermeersch, a U.S. Department of Agriculture supervisory public health veterinarian who has been assigned to Afghanistan’s Kunar Province since last year, is working with military Provincial Reconstruction Teams and Agri-Business Development Teams to change that.

Vermeersch, now of Springfield, Ill., operated a private large-animal veterinary practice in northwest Iowa before he went to work for the USDA in 2002.

His experience and background have made him an expert on animal nutrition, and Vermeersch identified animal nutrition as the key to tackling food insecurity in Afghanistan.

“If we’re trying to increase the economy of Afghanistan agriculture, which is part of USDA’s and the President’s agriculture strategy over here, increasing the economic output of animals is critical,” Vermeersch said. “And the number one thing we can do is increase their nutrition; to get more milk, to get more meat protein out of these animals.”

Improving the diets of animals as a means of improving the diets of humans might seem like “putting the cart before the horse.” Vermeersch insisted animal nutrition and human health are inextricably linked.

“You’ve got mothers who don’t get enough meat protein and fat in their diets during the last part of their pregnancies. Their infants are small – they’re weak when they’re born – they don’t nurse well,” Vermeersch said. “The mothers don’t lactate well, so you end up with babies that don’t grow well.”

Improving animal nutrition in Afghanistan, Vermeersch explained, is no simple matter. A key issue is Afghan farmers, as a matter of custom, feed only the leftovers of human food production to their livestock, which leaves the animals consistently on the edge of starvation. Plus, educating Afghan livestock producers about the need to boost animal nutrition faces serious cultural hurdles. Beyond education is the very real problem of making more Afghan land arable.

“It’s a foreign concept for Afghans to even raise feed that’s strictly for animals. Many don’t understand the connection between raising the feed for animals and increased milk output or more pounds of meat for them to eat,” Vermeersch said. “The challenges become getting enough water to lands that are currently not being farmed that can grow these types of feed and overcoming the cultural barriers that are out there as well.”

That is why Vermeersch believes the key to improving animal nutrition is educating Afghan livestock producers. However, Vermeersch also believes Afghan veterinary professionals must provide that education.

“It’s very important for Afghans to communicate to Afghans because they understand their culture. They understand how to communicate,” Vermeersch said.

After discussions with Vermeersch, the Iowa National Guard’s 734th Agri-Business Development Team decided to quickly develop a program to facilitate large-scale educational meetings between Afghan para-veterinarians and their clients. U.S. Army Maj. Loren Adams of New Liberty, Iowa, is the ADT’s veterinary officer. Adams credited the exchange of ideas with Vermeersch for sparking the concept behind the program, which is still being finalized.

“I think what we’re now realizing is education of both the veterinary community here is important, and also those veterinarians educating their clients in some of the aspects of animal nutrition that some of those clients probably haven’t thought of,” Adams said.

Vermeersch, for his part, pointed to the ADT as a vital part of the overall effort to improve Afghanistan’s agricultural production. Vermeersch added that ADTs make USDA experts much more effective.

“If you don’t have that ADT presence, you’ve got USDA people who are relying upon battle space owners to find time in already very, very constrained schedules to accommodate their work,” Vermeersch said. “The ADT is, I think, critical for moving the agriculture sector in this country forward because of the fact they have their own mobility, have their own security, and we can get out and get to ground level truths so much more quickly.”

Vermeersch has no doubt about the importance of boosting Afghanistan’s agri-business sector. “Eighty percent of the people in Afghanistan are directly connected to agriculture, so if you affect something in agriculture positively, you affect 80 percent of the people in this country positively,” he concluded.