200 Chickens and the Taliban

Agribusiness Development Teams (ADTs) are an unusual group of soldiers. They wake up in the morning, gleefully strap on 100 lbs of body armor and gear, and rumble out to remote and volatile places, where they hike miles over rock strewn, sandy, cobra infested terrain looking for places to start grandiose projects like water wells and irrigation ditches.

For three days the California ADT led by the Missouri ADT drove through the Nangarhar Province reviewing projects that might work in Kunar Province. On this day’s outing, the group was reviewing an irrigation ditch that ran alongside a river. The districts sub-Governor spoke of how the river rose during snowmelt and was degrading the hillside separating the river from the ditch. If the embankment was not reinforced the irrigation ditch would collapse causing the fertile hillside to return to dryland diminishing the food stocks for the farmers and their families.

Determining which projects were viable to start is a key task for ADT-CA at this stage. Many factors are considered but the key factor, at this stage of the conflict against the Taliban, is centered on COIN. As they walked down the steep grade and crisscrossed back and forth over the ditch, calculations were made and observations passed between the teams. The ditch was a strong possibility for a larger project because of being able to hire the local men through a ‘work-for-cash’ scheme, giving much needed cash for the families.

Then the sub-Governor spoke of how they repaired the embankment in the past—selling 200 chickens to the Taliban.

Magic words for the ADT members. Dissolve the need for the population to work with the Taliban and you erode support for the insurgency. It seemed this one community, out in a remote region of Nangarhar province would be getting more visits from these combat farmers.

- by Janet Killeen