Today we are in the grip of yet another dust storm. It's getting to be as bad as the one back in early July when I was staying at FOB Kalsu. Visibility is down to less than a half mile, the air is still and heavy, and the sun is completely obscured. The light is a strange orange color. Once outside for awhile, your eyes adjust to make the light seem "normal," but when you come inside, the transition is jarring. It's been getting worse over the last couple of days and in fact caused us to have to cancel an air movement to a town in the northwest corner of the province. I was looking forward to going there because I had seen some large and well-developed fish pond complexes during our helicopter overflight tour. Apparently the area near the big pond complexes is a "no go" zone for us anyway, but there are other smaller farms that we would have been able to visit. Too bad.
We've had mostly good days since coming to Wasit. One of the better days started with a visit to one of three new agricultural extension centers here (altogether, 17 are planned). We arrived early in the morning and found a group of about 25-30 men gathered to greet us. They were farmers, extension agents, and leaders of local agricultural unions. They had arranged plastic chairs in an open rectangle on a lawn shaded by date palms next to the center. Of course, they had us sit at the head and the Iraqis arrayed themselves along the side. The morning was very pleasant, maybe the coolest for that time of day since arriving here. Everyone introduced themselves, with our team leader explaining our mission in Iraq and describing a little bit about Norman Borlaug. Then, much to my surprise, the assembled Iraqis got down to business, talking about upcoming programs to improve fertility and birth rates in the highly regarded local sheep. We were only observers at this point, watching how the extension scientists explained their program to the farmers and agricultural unions. Clearly this is a great model for introducing new ideas and technologies to farmers and it was great to see the Iraqi people working out ways to help each other. The agricultural union leadership is the critical link because these farmers tend to be innovators and can encourage the farmers in their union to adopt improved practices by their own example. The only missing link we see is the participation of the research community, for which there is none in Wasit. It is something we are going to try and elevate to the provincial leadership in our final report.
After leaving the extension center we visited two farms that represent two contrasting forms of agriculture in the country. The first was an extended family farm with diverse crops. There were eight families farming about 120 acres. They had wheat, rice, vegetables, a date palm orchard, fish ponds, sheep, cattle, and turkeys. This farm supported the livlihood of about 160 people. The other farm was about 1800 acres of wheat, barley, and corn that was owned by an Iraqi parlimentarian and managed by his son-in-law. The manager wore western-style dress (unlike the "man-dress" dishdashas worn by the other farmers), was educated in an agricultural high school, and was computer literate. Two contrasting farming operations, both functional models. Good day.
We've had our bad days too. The other day we were scheduled to meet with a local sheikh who has curried favor with the coalition by ridding his area of insurgents. We were also scheduled to meet with a local religious leader who is also seen as a powerful local figure, but one who is apolitical. Our convoy had just left the FOB when we lurched to a halt. A sharp-eyed gunner had spotted wires protruding from a hole on the roadside from which an IED had been previously removed. We had to idle on the road for about an hour before some specialized vehicles arrived to make a way for us to pass around safely. Later, we found out that it was only the wires, no bomb. One of the lieutenants told me that the insurgents sometimes like to build the bomb in stages over several nights. It is thought that these are the same guys who shot four rockets into our base about a week ago, two brothers who are being actively pursued by the Iraqi army and police.
This incident put us off schedule but we kept our appointment with the sheikh anyway, meeting him at a water pump station on the Tigris River. He proceeded to tell us how valuable he was to the improvement of security in the area and how he thought that we should help him by providing him with pumps and motors. Our original schedule had us moving from the pump station back along water supply canals to view his fields of wheat, barley, and vegetables. Instead, we ended up driving a long, long way--almost to Babil Province--past fields and fields of fallow, desolate farmland. We pulled up next to a decrepit pump station on a dry water supply canal. He wanted to show us this place to ask that we provide him with a new diesel engine and water pump so that he could once again irrigate the surrounding fields. The pump station had one mostly disassembled and rusty diesel engine that was partially buried in the ground. Another one was on it's skid, but also partially disassembled and nonfunctional. The pump itself also appeared not to work. It was a kind of ecological succession of pump motors! It was rather off-putting to hear this sheikh continually press the point of trying to get something out of us. We try to tell people that our main mission is assessment, although we have been developing projects to improve the capacity of Iraqi agriculture, especially in developing the necessary human capacity to increase productivity. He really thought he was owed something from us. This may be a legacy of Saddam and how the command economy built a mindset and an expectation that things would flow from the center of power outwards. It will take a generational shift to get past this, although we do see signs of exceptional individuals seizing the opportunities presented by the fall of Saddam to take the initiative and move their personal situation and their country forward. While at this remote spot, the religious leader we were scheduled to meet arrived, along with a member of the Wasit provincial council, wearing a suit and tie in the broiling sun. He said one thing that I thought was very insightful. He said that "We need to focus agricultural development at the village level. After the village level, we should work at the sub-district and then district leve." In other words, a bottom-up, farmer-first approach. In the context of a history of the top-down systems of patronage, this was a striking comment, bordering on revolutionary in my view. He also told me that he had received formal training from the U.S. in mediation and conflict resolution and seemed to take pride in this qualification. I told him as we left that I admired his courage.
As I finish writing this I now realize that what started out as a bad day actually turned out to be quite a good one after all.
Monday, September 15, 2008
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