Aquaculture in Afghanistan?

Aquaculture in Afghanistan?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

When I got to Moldova (my first “development” experience) I was almost incensed by the persistent requests for computers by Moldovans when they had inconsistent power, no little-no heating, and a myriad of other problems but I learned/relearned that
#1 It is hard to tell/convince people what they need (as opposed to what they want)
#2 My first impressions aren’t always right

In Afghanistan I would never have guessed that there would be even one fish farm in the country but here I was looking at a fairly (for Afghanistan) sophisticated hatchery.

Since seeing Afghans taste for fish (I wouldn’t have guessed), this hatchery, and having seen irrigation in Afghanistan it has occurred to me that small scale aquaculture might have a place in Afghanistan. The inhabited parts of Afghanistan that I have been to have surface irrigation ditches everywhere (about as inefficient as one can get) the way this system works I don’t see a reason that the better supplied ditches (i.e. those that aren’t in danger of going dry) that are close to (relatively) good roads can’t have little “micro-hatcheries”. It is hard to describe how many of these ditches are positioned relative to the fields but at the points right before fields little hatcheries could be built which would give people extra income/food, use no extra water (very important), provide a water storage basin of sorts, and provide the crops with really good “pre-fertilized” water (the sharing of hatchery waste water is something I have seen successfully done in many parts of Southeast Asia).

Cellulosic Ethanol: One Molecule Could Cure Our Addiction to Oil

Cellulosic ethanol, in theory, is a much better bet. Most of the plant species suitable for producing this kind of ethanol — like switchgrass, a fast- growing plant found throughout the Great Plains, and farmed poplar trees — aren't food crops. And according to a joint study by the US Departments of Agriculture and Energy, we can sustainably grow more than 1 billion tons of such biomass on available farmland, using minimal fertilizer. In fact, about two-thirds of what we throw into our landfills today contains cellulose and thus potential fuel. Better still: Cellulosic ethanol yields roughly 80 percent more energy than is required to grow and convert it.

Still, I think the most "Sustainable" option would be to push research on turning everyday waste biomass (like what is thrown in the garbage; grass clippings, banana peels, floral waste, etc) into ethanol, it is possible and while i doubt it would "answer all our energy needs" (though there is no solution to all our energy needs) it would be using (unused) existing waste instead of growing new material.

30 Minute Bird Flu Test

Well the subject says it all (pretty much) but i thought i would blog this just because i have seen how difficult it is to access some of the places that Avian Influenza started. There are many parts of the developing world where it is very difficult to get to, get things (infected animals to test) out not to mention doing tests on site. If these little devices could be made cheap and rugged they could be distributed many places where people aren't as aware of its dangers so aren't as likely to go to the trouble of testing (which is arduous at the moment). Being able to test in the field will certainly go a long way towards helping control such outbreaks.

Happy-Fatty Cake

Happy-Fatty Cake
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Actually on one side it says “Fatty Cake” and the other side it says “Happy Cake” I am not sure which is more amusing. I took two pictures but I decided to include the “Fatty Cake” side:
1). Because it says Fatty Cake
2). The email address, yahoo.
It just seemed funny to me that an Iranian food manufacturer that is large enough to get food into central Afghanistan would list a Yahoo email address instead of something a bit more professional (fattycake.com? [I couldn’t resist])

A-Typical Afghan Breakfast

A-Typical Afghan Breakfast
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Normally Afghan meals are served on a piece of plastic or pleather on the floor so this breakfast was a bit of a treat (in the morning I was not in the mood to sit on the floor).

This breakfast was even more of a treat in that it consisted of more than just jam, bread, and tea (which annoys me even in those bagel and cream cheese house holds in the US). This day we had hard boiled eggs, “Little Debbie” type cakes, tea, and bread… not a four star meal to be sure but more than I normally get.

I was also struck (again) by the absence of women, something that continues to make me feel guilty/uncomfortable.

Pot O' Yoghurt

Pot O' Yoghurt
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

There was no real restaurant in Band-e Amir but there was a little hut type place right by the late and I suspect the same people that "ran" that hut were supplying us with food. One of our organization's field managers arranged that we have a large tent set aside for us so we were served various foods like kabob, nans (bread), and yoghurt, lots of yoghurt. The photo here is a big ole pot of yoghurt and it was doled out in typical Afghan fashion (that is, little worry about spillage or microbes).

I haven't yet taken a good picture of a normal afghan meal but I have been amused that the normal meal involves rolling out a piece of pleather or plastic on the floor and then putting all the food on the rolled out material. Afghans traditionally eat with their hands (sometimes using shared bowls) and things tend to get a bit messy so the rolled out plastic works quite nicely in that they just take away the dishes and roll up the mat and all the spilled yoghurt, crumbs, and bits of sheep and I guess shake it out outside.

Yoghurt itself seems to be almost as important as nans in the typical afghan meal. Normally yoghurt is eaten plain, by the spoonful, and from a bowl. I have never been particularly fond of plain yoghurt and in Moldova, the few times I was served yoghurt, I would doctor it with some of the great Moldovan jams. One of the problems I ran into in Moldova is that yoghurt, cheese, etc all contain microbes and in developing countries they tend to contain "extra" bugs many of which can make you sick. So, the combination of having a sensitive stomach and being mildly allergic to dairy products has been enough incentive to keep me away from most homemade afghan dairy products.

Disembodied Pelts

Disembodied Pelts
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is from my first evening in Bandi Amir and I think I was walking over to see the lakes at night. On the way over to the lakes we passed a “Kabob shack” (not sure if that was its official title but they were making kabobs there) and behind the shack were a bunch of fresh pelts lying in a pile so I had to take a picture (more about pelts in the next pelts picture which came a few days later).

Salt Icing

Salt Icing
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I love to snack, it’s a curse of sorts (hey, we all have our vices) but as soon as I got to Afghanistan I began my search for the “proverbial sunflower seed” (In the US I have taken to eating unshelled Chinese sunflower seeds [I got started on them while in Beijing, stopped for awhile and then found that some Chinese Asian markets, not Japanese, Korean, or southern Asian carry them] because they are cheap, tasty, healthy and take a bit of effort to eat so it keeps my mouth busier than my stomach, a good thing), something that was yummy, cheap, and not too many calories.

Well I found they have pistachios here and due to my poor math and converting Afs to USD I misunderstood their cost (they are about $4/lb here, not exactly cheap) so I bought a bag of them. Apparently the Iranians are not as picky about the “crackability” of their nuts so many of the nuts are a bit difficult to open, good for me I guess. The one thing that struck me was the way they salted their nuts, I believe in the US the process normally involves soaking the nuts in salt water then roasting them (not sure about that though) but the Iranian version they have what looks like hard cake icing but is salt flavored and they dribble it over the nuts, shell and all. I don’t think this is a particularly effective way to do it since I find myself sucking on the shells to I don’t feel like I am eating unsalted nuts. Anyway, I am quite curious about the composition of the salt icing (perhaps corn starch, salt, and some liquid?) and will continue to probe my Afghan colleagues.

Milk Curd Balls

Milk Curd Balls
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Ok, so I *think* they are made from milk curd but I am not sure; I have had difficulty getting a clear description of how they are made. I have had similar looking and similar tasting sweets in Indian restaurants in the US so I thought I would try the Afghan versions. These are pretty good too, but perhaps a wee bit less sweet than the Indian ones (which I believe are sweetened with honey). They are cheap, common, and tasty an unfortunate combination since they add kilograms (to my waist) per ball and they are milk (I am mildly allergic to milk and suffer a bit every time I eat them, but the milk-factor does help my [admittedly weak] will power).

Fire Fodder?

Fire Fodder?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I am not sure if the vegetation collected here is weeds to be used for fire or fodder for animals (I took this about a month ago [yes I am falling behind] and because my camera is less than stellar and we are moving the picture isn’t totally clear) but I am guessing for fire since it doesn’t look uniform in composition and this seems to be one of the more arid areas where trees aren’t as available (so they tend to default to dried manure or bundles of weeds).

In driving to/from the provinces one sees lots of donkey’s loaded down with everything from rocks to dirt to grass to telephone poles (not joking, I wish I had gotten a picture of that poor animal) but despite this being a common site I never seem to get a good picture… grrrr.

Bag'n Straw

Bag'n Straw
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Since I have gotten to Afghanistan I have been interested (somewhat) in rural construction materials, namely mud and straw. I noticed early on that many places (even in Kabul) use a mud stucco with some sort of plant fiber mixed in but I had initially thought they just throw in a bunch of dried grass, but I was wrong.

Making stucco seems to be somewhat of an art (debatable I know). I have also discovered that Afghans are flatbread fanatics (not necessarily connoisseurs but Nans [afghan flatbread] are apparently an essential part of every afghan meal so wheat is grown all over the country but I never thought about what they were doing with all the remaining straw (plowing it back in would be nice but probably a pipedream). Well turns out they have machines here that are built specifically for grinding straw. Once the straw is ground they stuff it into bags like these and either use it or sell it. More on the machines they use later.

Lemon Flavored Pistachios

Lemon Flavored Pistachios
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Nope; Im not joking these nuts are soaked in lemon juice then roasted then covered with some salt icing like stuff (will post more about that later). I am usually a sucker for new foods and I love pistachios so I thought what the hell (and while they are expensive [about $4/lb] they are cheaper than peanuts believe it or not). After having gone through a kilogram of these lemon flavored pistachios I gotta admit they are pretty good but I have since found Iranian sunflower seeds that are $1.50/lb so due to financial constraints I have made the switch, though if I find a place that has the Chinese sunflower seeds I will certainly go broke because I *love* those.

Pickled Mango

Pickled Mango
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I just finished reading a mouth watering article on the NPR website about pickling foods and it made me think that I should take a picture of the pickled mangos that I bought here (should might be incorrect, perhaps I was just that bored).

I had never heard of pickled mangos before I met Faysal, a Bangladeshi microfinance advisor (he works for my organization and lives in the same compound I do) who is almost as frustrated with the food situation in my organization as I am the difference is he can speak some Dari and can get around in Kabul much easier than I. He introduced me to these “pickled vegetables” (mainly mangos) as something that would help along the oil N’ okra concoction that we are fed here on a regular basis (and no, to my southern brethren oil N okra does not mean breaded and fried okra that I love so dearly but literally okra diced, and cooked with an inordinate amount of oil) and he was right it is Pakistani which is very similar to Indian which is by definition spicy… and the acidic spiciness does indeed make the okra concoction more palatable.

Whats interesting to me is that I never would have guessed that it was mango, apparently the pickling process turns the mango into an avocado like consistency (I thought I was eating avocado at first), not only that, they apparently just dice the mango up whole, skin, seed and all so you have to spit out chunks of mango seeds (for those who don’t know Mango sees are large, imagine a golf ball flattened into a semi-oblong shape) which doesn’t thrill me but its much less trouble than say watermelon (which they have here in spades).

An interesting side note, when I was given the pickled mangos I asked if they needed to be refrigerated and was told no, not at all, but that I should be sure to keep them in the sun... reminded me of the Simpson’s episode where grandpa Simpson was working in a fast food shop, ran out of the shop's "special sauce", told his pimply teenaged boss and the kid said "oh, quick! go put some mayonnaise in the sun"… different cultures, different customs.

Love, Nutella, and 5kg cookies

Love, Nutella, and 5kg cookies
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Ok, maybe not true love but this stuff has saved me (from insanity) on occasion. Where I am now I have a less than stellar cook and my many attempts to cook on my own have been thwarted by various things (such as a very cramped kitchen, frequent power outages [which has resulted in about $60 of food being lost], and a funky sense of sanitation [I found a dead scorpion that one of the staff dumped in the kitchen sink]) so I just dont get the kind of variety I like (Afghan food is ok, but having the same thing on a weekly basis aint cutn it so I occasionally indulge in dipping cookies some nutella. This cookie may look like its just a few grams but I swear that when I dip them in nutella that adds a few kilos (or that is what my waist is telling me).

Cucumber Drink

Cucumber Drink
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is a yoghurt and cucumber drink that was served to us. I see yogurt all over the place here but I have yet to try much for two reasons, one the sanitation of dairy products here (especially in the rural areas) is questionable, but the reason I tell everyone is my allergy to milk which is kinda true, I am allergic somewhat and figure that I should hold off on somethings so I can enjoy other things.

Afghan Mulberries (The Forbidden Fruit)

Afghan Mulberries
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

After having been stuffed with food they brought out a round of Mulberries. At this point I had just gotten over being really sick the week before from eating unwashed vegetables (or that is what the doctor thought, hell if I know whether they had been washed or not) so I was leery at best when they served the basket of fruit. When they noticed I wasnt eating they asked why and I mentioned my delicate stomach and how I wasnt sure the fruit had been washed so one of the Afghans hopped up, took the basket, dunked it in the river (where people wash their clothes, swim, bath, etc), and swished the fruit around... that pretty much helped me make up my mind as to whether or not I would partake of the (now) forbidden fruit.

Panjshir'ian(?) Feast

Panjshir'ian(?) Feast
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

After awhile our hosts started brining out waves of food like rice, nan (the flat bread looking thing), lamb, yoghurt drinks, scallions, and cucumbers. This is one of the more varied meals I have seen here. Afghan meals are very meat oriented so a scallion or a cucumber is usually the most vegetable you get (unless you count potatoes in which case I get 200% of the US RDA). Since I am a fan of lamb, goat, and beef I have made out like a (“dietarily imbalanced”) champ though I do buy some vegetables on the side.

Burn'n stuff

Burn'n stuff
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Yeah, a less than droll topic but #1 having grown up with a father who had (has) a love affair with fireplaces and #2 having a family that grows saw timber I am often interested in lumber.

While it didn’t occur to me at the time I have since noticed that fire fuel here is hard to come by, people burn dried manure, bundles of grass, roots, and occasionally gas and regular wood so when I saw "regular firewood" for sale I thought I'd snap off a picture.

Here is some firewood for sale in one of the villages we passed through on our way back from the Panjshir province. Wood is usually bought by weight which is funny to me but I am sure there is a direct correlation between weight and burning time/intensity (think about burning pine logs vs. burning oak logs) and come to think of it, it could be the same in the US (I can't recall our family ever having bought firewood, my brother and I were taught [willingly at first] the ways of the chainsaw early on and harvested firewood from our property ever since).

While I can't tell here I swear some of the wood they sell are roots, they are so scraggly that they have to be (I haven’t seen trees that look that scraggly) which is kind of unsettling since that is tantamount to raping the (already poor) soil.

Coming in behind the livestock…

Coming in behind the livestock…
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Coming in behind the livestock and harvesting what they don’t eat that’s the name of the game here.

Since this area has almost no trees the only remaining fuel is either dried cow patties or bundles of grass and here they prefer grass bundles. If you look in an over grazed pasture with most “grass eaters” (cows, horses, goats, etc) you will see that the grass is eaten down to a nub and there are perfect weeds left standing. Livestock are going to eat the plants they prefer first and if they can help it avoid the plants they don’t like (and they are pretty good at this). The point is, people here quite often come in behind where their livestock have grazed and "harvest" the weeds their livestock have avoided and stack them in small piles to bundle up later and use as fuel for fire.

Buffalo Chips

Buffalo Chips
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Going to Band-e Amir I noticed two things (ok, so I noticed many things but two things relating to fire fuel) Cow patties and grass piles.

In the wide open prairie/mountain-meadow/tundra(?) I noticed piles of grass everywhere that were apparently being cut/collected for fuel (more on that in a future post) and I also noticed piles of cakes on the walls around the houses. These cakes are actually cow manure shaped into cakes and dried and later used as fuel.

I am sure some people are repulsed by the idea of even touching cow manure but I promise you it is more benign than say omnivore or carnivore excrement. An Indian friend of mine told me about the many ways manure is used in India and I remember seeing some public TV documentary that was suppose to show the poorest of the poor and what they were forced to use as cooking fuel, at the time they got me (I felt sorry for the people) but now I dont feel as sorry for them, well maybe I do but not because they have to touch cow manure.

Afghanistan has very few trees and what few trees are here are either used for construction (beams) or sold to Pakistan (the wood is pretty slow growing and dense thus fetches a fairly high price) so fuel for fire is scarce. If you have ever read a cowboy novel you might remember a reference to someone fetching Buffalo Chips; I remember these references and usually just glossed over them but later it occurred to me that buffalo chips were buffalo paddies. It actually is a pretty good fuel since it dries into a hard (almost chip-board like) discs and is high in cellulose and lignin (from all the grass that the cattle consume) both of which are high in energy (lignin is especially hard for cattle to digest so it usually passes right through their systems) so instead of throwing it out or leaving it in the stalls the people here use it (and hopefully throw the ash onto the fields but I dont know that for sure) for fuel.

This makes me think of biodigesters; if people are willing to collect manure then maybe biodigesters have a place in Afghanistan. Biodigester residue leaves a better fertilizer behind (instead of just carbon ash) not only that I have noticed that human feces is used as fertilizer, in my opinion this is the right idea implemented in the wrong way (processing the human waste to #1 harvest potential energy #2 reduce or get rid of infections that are transmitted through feces) but that is for another post.

Over irrigating?

Over irrigating?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here was an irrigation ditch (which I was assured was clean and pure enough to drink, by a Afghan doctor that was with us [this was the first assurance of many; these assurances quickly reduced what little faith I had in his medical ability]).

The reason I took this photo was #1 the surface irrigation used (which I *really* think afghans need to get away from [though admittedly alternate forms of irrigation are usually more expensive and more difficult to implement] since Afghanistan is *very* dry) #2 The scallions (I didnt taste them but I smelled it and it looks like scallions) that were practically being drowned. I am not a horticulture person I dont think scallions require constant water (I actually sank when I tried to walk into the field, reminiscent of rice paddies).

I supposed my point was to show how poorly water is used (wasted) here, I believe in another post I mentioned how, when I worked at a computer lab in college, students totally wasted paper (which was initially free) when printing it made me cringe at how blatantly wasteful people could be. The lab finally got fed up and started charging and whatyaknow the rate of paper usage was reduced by 3/4th in a week! I think the same is here, at places where there is a source of water people consistently waste water and I sincerely fear for the future of Afghanistans water tables.

Nuth'n says yummy like a wheelbarrow full of sheep heads...

Nuth'n says yummy like a wheelbarrow full of sheep heads...
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

When being taxied around from place to place in Kabul (its not a great idea for foreigners to walk around Kabul at the moment) I see tons of things I want to get a picture of everything from 300 gallon pots which are actually ovens to… wheelbarrows full of sheep heads.

We had passed by this spot a few times so I thought I was ready to take a picture, or so I thought, the window on my side would not roll down, the driver noticed so he stopped right in front of the two boys selling the sheep heads (not 2 feet away, close enough that I couldn’t even open the door without hitting them). This was *not* what I wanted, pointing a camera in someone face and then driving off. I quickly snapped a picture through the window and told the driver to go (I *really* didn’t like this situation) but they kept saying go ahead and take a picture, even one of the boys started saying “take my picture” (he apparently didn’t notice that I was taking a picture of what he was selling, not him).

I had asked previously about how the heads are used and found that usually the are boiled and the soup stock is used but it is not uncommon for the head to be eaten. While I can stomach the head being used as soup stock the idea of eating something that is staring back at me would be a bit harder to swallow (literally and figuratively). In the southeastern US some people scramble pork brains with eggs though its been a long time since I have seen that.

Seeing these disembodied heads did make me think of headcheese though. I looked it up on Wikipedia and found that headcheese is made in a variety of cultures/places but not Afghanistan.

Those hanging h'orderves in the background are, I believe, lungs. The ditch behind them and in front of the pedestrians is actually an open sewer. This is actually not an uncommon scene, its pretty representative of Kabul, to the left a guy in jeans and a western-ish shirt, in front of him a business-casual looking guy, in front of him a guy dressed in traditional clothes, in front of him a woman in a burqa, and in front of her a older man in traditional clothes and full beard.

I want my "Macro Agriculture" Podcast!!!

Ok, first I guess I should elaborate on what I mean by “Macro Agriculture”, simply put I am referring to “International Agriculture” and since much of the world’s agriculture takes place in the third world I want my International Agricultural Development podcast!

 

I applauded Texas A&M University’s Ag News Weekly and the Kansas extension service’s podcast, Agricast. Both of those podcasts started just a few months (3-4) after podcasts came about (August 2005ish) but I could never get into them, much of my lack of interest was that these podcasts had little to do with me since they were on local issues.

 

Now there are more Agriculture related podcasts and some of them are a bit more my speed but still they still aren’t quite what I am looking for. Given the nature of my work I am intensely interested in agriculture that does or can apply to agriculture in the larger sense, that is, things like new technologies for developed and developing agriculture systems and policies etc. I guess if you took all the farming/agriculture related reports coming out of BBC and NPR then that would be about what I am looking for. I regularly do searches on the NPR and BBC websites to find the latest ag related reports but that’s not nearly as convenient as a podcast. Maybe if they made their site such that they were able to provide podcast feeds of reports that had key words (and no, you wouldn’t have to have some funky voice recognition since their reports are almost always offered as text and audio. Already sites like Yahoo News and Google News offer news feeds based on key words you specify so my idea doesn’t sound so far fetched (at least to me it doesn’t).

 

Breakfast: Plain as it can get

Breakfast: Plain as it can get
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Bread, honey, and tea... this is a reoccurring theme in my travels, simple food. I have been brought up (intentionally or not) to be a bit of a culinary snob, while I am not quite there (I can’t tell the difference between a $25 bottle of wine and a $2,500 bottle of wine) I do have standards of sorts. I feel that I can justify part of my snobbishness since I am perfectly willing to cook for myself, having been told more than once “I won’t have you marrying out of hunger” I learned fairly early on how to be a decent cook (or at least I can cook well enough that I will eat it).

So, my culinary afghan adventures have recently made a bit more sense to me in that I recently discovered that the reason that my lunch was fairly palatable and varied and my morning and evening meals were less so was because my morning/evening meals are prepared by the night watch. The lunch cook pretty much hides in the kitchen during the day (not atypical in Afghanistan) and all my meals are brought to me by the assistant cook.

Now having complained about my food I know many an American who would be perfectly happy with a bagel, tea, and jelly/cheese but I am not usually one of them. I am starting to look at stoves (think car camping stove) now since all the cooking here takes place in a cauldron balanced on a gas tank (not great for cooking with pans etc) which would explain the goulash consistency of most of my meals (that was not necessarily a put down, but everything is mixed together ala goulash).

I have been chastised before for being critical of native diets “Because those poor people don’t have access to other foods” but it has recently become apparent to me that simple native diets are often due to culture *not* lack of availability.

When in Moldova I used to be driven crazy by the lack of variety in my meals (it was not uncommon to have an egg fried in sunflower oil a slab of bread and wine for dinner (and salt if I asked for it) but I would look in the garden and see garlic, chickens ripe for the plucking (I paid for my food their so I didn’t feel guilty about taking a chicken), spinach, tomatoes, basil, and a bunch of other foods *right*outside*my*window* but it just never occurred to my host family to mix them (indeed when I tried making a tomato sauce they were horrified that I would put basil with tomato and couldn’t understand why I added *only* a capful of oil). I find a similar situation in Afghanistan. My meals are incredibly simple, and I honestly don’t believe it’s due to laziness and certainly not due to lack of availability. While I can’t get out and walk around as much as I would like I do see what’s available in the stalls along the side of the road. There is plenty of variety such as multiple varieties of lettuce, watermelon, a honey dew type fruit, peaches, plums, garlic, a few types of bread (the traditional afghan bread, which looks a lot like Indian “nan”s, is actually a pretty utilitarian bread in that it can be tastefully eaten with sweets like jelly or used as a pizza crust, or spread with something like hummus), onions, potatoes, okra, and the list goes on. This variety could yield some pretty tasty dishes but instead even the lunch cook’s meals consist of rice or potato, with bread (always two starches), and then a tomato n oil based topping which is sometimes a bit of meat like veal, or okra that has been my lunch for over two weeks… and that is the best meal of the day.

Ironic: Poppy processing in Afghanistan

Lately I have been working on a USAID concept paper for the enhancement of sugar beet processing facilities in the Afghan province of Baghlam and in the process I have learned how little value added processing (VAP) takes place in Afghanistan. Like in many places in Africa, the agricultural economies are focused on providing raw materials that are then exported and processed in other more developed countries. The idea of cultivating a country’s capacity to process agricultural goods is no trivial task, setting up the facilities is only half of it, export is the most difficult (i.e. Quality assurance, maintaining regular schedules, enforcing contract agreements, tariffs, etc).

The irony in Afghanistan is that the poppy industry has some of the most developed (not necessarily advanced, but certainly stable) processing facilities in Afghanistan. Even with the pressure of air strikes (rare), herbicides, burning, etc Afghanistan still produces over 90% of the world’s opium products, amazing.

The Village & grapes

The Village & grapes
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I took this picture for two reasons; #1 How foreign and ancient the villages seemed to be (these structures are made of mud so while the village locations are ancient I was informed that most of the structures were not so old) #2 The walled vineyards which I saw quite a bit. The greenery you see inside the wall here is grapes. Since this is an Islamic society they don't use the grapes for wine (though that is the first thing that popped into my head, too much of Eastern Europe I guess). The Afghans I have talked to are quite proud of their grapes but from what I have seen so far they only eat the grapes as grapes, I am sure they have raisins but have yet to see them. I know little to nothing about wine production (types of grapes required, preferred soils, and preferred climates) but as invested as many of these farmers are in grape production I would be curious to see what the potential for wine production is (It would only be for personal curiosity since the cultural taboo would make actual production impossible, though it does amaze me that poppies seem to be more accepted than booze here).

Irrigation

Irrigation
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Well this photo was supposed to show some basic surface irrigation but taking pictures from a speeding vehicle ain't easy so the photo ended up looking more like a mini swamp. To the right is a pile of straw (probably wheat, more on that later) and to the left I *think* are grapes.

In Afghanistan I have been appalled (though I totally understand the reasoning) by the grossly inefficient use of water, especially considering that most of the country is very arid.

Surface irrigation is the simplest form of irrigation to implement (how well its implemented is a different story) so in rural areas with little to no access to other irrigation technologies (not to mention little access to money) the decision to use surface irrigation is understandable.

The use of water here kind of reminds me of when I worked at my university computer lab, when I first started working they had a policy of free printing but it was insane how much paper people used and how frivolously they used it, I think the same applies here. When water is available they just use it without considering the long term (I'm talking months, not some 100 years later) consequences.

All that is not to say they don’t have some pretty nifty/creative irrigation technologies like Kareezes (which I hope to get a photo of later on).

Fluorescent bulbs in Afghanistan

Fluorescent bulbs in Afghanistan
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Recently I believe the Australian government signed in to law legislation requiring the use of Fluorescent lighting and banning filament lighting (though I am sure there are exceptions). I applauded the effort (even though it does feel a bit uncomfortable in the big brother sense) but I don't see the US doing something like that anytime soon for a variety of reasons (excuses). I have been quite impressed that the use of fluorescent bulbs is quite common in Afghanistan, even in rural areas (assuming they have electricity). I am sure there are infrastructure cost arguments to be in the US and that Afghanistan is starting from the bottom but still... if a worn torn third world country can do it then shouldn't the US?

Laundry Soap

Laundry Soap
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I originally thought this might be some sort of vegetable based soap but I didn't have an Afghan colleague with me to ask (poor guy has to ask all my weird questions, I can see the locals thinking "why are you asking that?"). On the side the only English I could make out was "laundry soap" so that much I know.

They had other soaps there as well but I kinda had to take this photo incognito as I am still a bit nervous about photography in Afghanistan. I haven't had *any* problems but I have heard things like women walking in front of a photographer just as they snap the picture only to get yelled at, not to mention looking even more like a foreigner (I have grown a beard and there are some light skinned Afghans out there so I don't stick out tooo badly).

You can also see rice and beans behind the soap. I was pretty much amazed to hear that Afghanistan grows rice (since it’s a water intensive crop), though only in certain areas. Some locals grown their own little patches of rice but I was told that it is pretty low quality stuff and the "good stuff" comes from southern Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Afghan Compounds

Afghan Compounds
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

I mainly took this photo because I thought it was a good example of many of the homes I saw on my trip. Most homes seem to be built like compounds, that is, a big wall surrounding a few houses and gardens. I would be curious to learn the original reason for this design (security, keeping the kids/livestock in/safe, or something else).

Here is also another good example of how pervasive wheat production is in Afghanistan. While I haven't been to all parts of the country I have heard (and seen) that bread is a staple of the afghan diet and wheat is a pretty hardy crop so I don't see why it wouldn't be grown in other areas as well. There is also row of what I think is corn, funny because I have hardly seen any corn food products and it doesn't seem that they feed corn to livestock (though I don't know that for sure).

Chopped Wheat

Chopped Wheat
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Well the main reason I took this photo is hard to see. In the background you see a mound of white and some people/animals around it. Well I believe that mound of white is chopped/ground straw. I have seen (but unfortunately do not have photos of yet) machines that hook up to tractor PTOs that seem designed solely for the purpose of grinding up straw (not the grain itself but the stems, straw).

Here people are stuffing the ground straw into large bags (like 3-5 times the size of large feed bags) and loading it onto an animal (probably a donkey). I have seen large bags of this ground straw for sale on the side of the road and it occurred to me that this is probably sold for mixing with mud for stucco. Many structures here are covered with mud stucco of sorts that clearly has some sort of grassy/straw mixed in with it. In talking with my Afghan colleagues I found that the walls, many of which are made at least partly of this mud straw mixture, are rebuilt/repaired every year so I imagine the stucco is also repaired annually which would make this a product that has a constant market.

Butcher

Butcher
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Meat meat meat! Since my agriculture background leans more towards livestock production I am always interested in butchers and meats. This is a pretty typical scene in the small towns and big cities. I can't tell all the cuts (as usual in developing countries exact cuts of meat are generally viewed as superfluous) here but I am guessing the stuff on the far left is either liver or lungs, the long thing is hide/skin, and the others are leg-cuts. The most common meats are mutton, goat, and beef with lamb being the most expensive and poultry (rare though it is) being the cheapest with goat and beef being in the middle.

The cuts of meat are usually pretty crude, I think the cutting utensil of choice here is the axe (or at least they are cut with the precision of one using an axe) and the result is meat that tastes just fine but is laced with flecks of bone (it’s a wonder I haven’t cracked any teeth during any of my culinary adventures).

Butcher

Butcher
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

A typical scene along the road in a small town. Honestly the thing that was rather amusing to me is that you only see men at these markets, even though the world over men are the "grill kings" I don't see men perusing the meat isles in western supermarket (of course there are exceptions but generally speaking its mostly women buying the meat). Since women don't get out much in Afghanistan I guess that leaves the men to do the meat buying.

Beached Cattle

Beached Cattle
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

We were driving along and all of a sudden one of the guys wanted to pull off so we did and there were these cows (actually one bull and three heifers) just lying on beside the river like little beached bovines.

New job

Well I just got hired for a program coordinator position in Afghanistan and will be heading out there this week. I don't know nearly as much about the work as I would like but have been reading some of my (new) organization's proposals, about irrigation (which will be a large part of my program), and the Hazarajat region (which my program will concentrate on. I could go on for a long time about it but don't really have the time at the moment. I have noticed that, at least in the Hazarajat region, the have been quite dependant on livestock which bodes well for me (as opposed to horticulture, which I will have to deal with) since I am much more familiar with livestock development. Ok, back to the books/packing/planning.

The Dems are porking us just like the Republicans...

Quick gripe. President Bush asked for $100 billion for the Iraq war, I won't even get started on that (and ongoing disaster) but the while floating around in congress it grew by an extra 20 billion?!

Turns out that after all that talk by democrats about killing pork barrel spending they are tacking on ear marks for live stock producers, spinach farmers, peanut farmers, etc... business as usual... sigh.

Time to clean the stalls?

Time to clean the stalls?
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Remember the "Nice stalls" post, well these stalls were not quite as impressive. While I did approve of the setup generally speaking (chopped forage, separate stalls, etc) I think the cleaning aspect left a bit to be desired. These cows were running around in manure soup (which is not as bad as it sounds, at least for the cow) but they didn't have to. While you can't see it this stable was built on a bit of an incline (which the people here leveled) which could have been used to their advantage in terms of drainage, I don't imagine that cleaning soup out is particularly easy (I was being facetious, I know its not easy)

Big Nose Syndrome

Big Nose Syndrome
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

If any Vets are looking at this I would be curious on your opinion about what ails this bull's snout. The farmers asked me and I took a look at him, when asked they said that when he had this swelling that he had a non-mucus discharge, pus? The only guess (not even an educated guess) was an infection of some sort. This guy (the bull) got "sick" like once a month or more and would hardly eat anything when he was all swollen. Hmmmmm.

Nice stalls

Nice stalls
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Ok, I am sure some people are repulsed by pictures like these (or probably just not interested) but having worked in a bunch of operations and having seen even more I can appreciate well kept stalls. Here they used sawdust (I totally forgot to ask where they got all that sawdust) for bedding for the cattle which also makes stalls easier to clean (scooping sawdust/manure cakes is easier than plain ole manure) and clean stalls mean clean teats and happy cattle which can translate into higher productivity. I was impressed one that they did this at all but also that they did this given their location/situation which was out in the boonies (I have seen worse operations in more developed countries).

Coral

Coral
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Not sure if the title is spelled right (it’s supposed to be the fenced in area to keep cattle in one spot, not the little critters that make reefs).

I was amused by this not because I have never seen one before but because this was the only coral I saw in Kenya; most families kept their cattle in sheds.

Anyway, I was also amused by the fact that I saw lots of Holsteins in Kenya. Holsteins produce *alot* of milk so it makes sense for dairy farmers to have them but the breed is originally from the UK (not a warm place) and Kenya can get pretty warm. Now I should mention that I was in the Mount Kenya area which had wonderful weather and I was told did not get particularly hot so it is quite possible that no one had Holsteins in other parts of the country. By the way, I brought that up because the tan bovine in this picture appears to have some Brahma in it, a very heat tolerant breed.

Indian domination

Indian domination
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

The point of this photo was #1 to give you (or those that are curious) the specs on the milk cooler and #2 point out "the client" which is Ardarsh Developers LTD which is Indian. Ok, so its not domination but I was was still quite amused at how many Indians were in Kenya and how they dominated the business scene there. Many of the larger buildings/businesses were owned by Indians. I was told that they were brought over as laborers by the brits when Britain was constructing a railroad in Kenya and later other Indians came to cater to the Indians already there and the rest is history.

Milk Cooler

Milk Cooler
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

From medium sized freezer to honking huge (ok, for average Joes huge, for people in the dairy industry nothing special) milk cooler (that is idle at the moment).

This cooler was loaned to this cooperative by the milk processor that the cooperative gave its milk to. In theory the cooperative could keep its milk longer so spoilage would be less of an issue. The problem was that (amazingly) no one took into account the fact that there were constant power outages in Kenya. Well a few months before I got there was an overnight outage and they lost 6,000kg of milk, and have yet to pay the members back for the lost milk... sigh.

Refrigerators...

Refrigerators...
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Nothing much to say here, its a freezer. They used this freezer and one other freezer to store yogurt and mala for their little cafe.

Ugali processing plant...

Ugali processing plant...
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Ok, so it’s not much of a processing plant, really its just a flimsy pot with a flimsier top on a home made stove.

The thing I remember them making in this was ugali (which I think I mentioned earlier but anyway think "congealed grits") but I think they also boiled milk in this as well as made mala and yogurt in this thing (but I am less sure about those).

I was not a fan of ugali (though I do have an undying love for grits) and this ugali had a distinct smoked flavor to it (no doubt from the charcoal they were burning to cook it) which did not add to its appeal in the least.

I do have to admit that ugali had potential, a bit of salt, or cheese and perhaps fry it up ah la polenta and viola! gourmet!

Unused Equipment

Unused Equipment
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here was a room where they kept all their junk. I was told that the milk cans (to the left) were "bad" but when I asked further they said that the cans were dirty and the milk would go bad if it was left in those cans. Upon closer inspection it was just crusty nothing that couldn't be scraped off but hey.

What floored me was their older cooling equipment. Before they could cool a few thousand liters of milk a a time (albeit pretty inefficiently) and now there was a part of it was that broken. While I was there I talked them into brining a specialist by to estimate the value of it, the guy said about 1000Ksh?!?!? (That’s about $13, the cost of a ride to the airport from Nairobi). I would think the scrap metal from the equipment would be worth more than that.

Milk Cooling

Milk Cooling
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This was a first for me, this was apparently a setup the dairy cooperative used to cool the milk they received, that is they put the milk in cans and put the cans in cool water (not warm but not cold either). Actually I have seen something like this, old colonial spring houses in the US. Anyway it did cool the milk down but it can't be particularly efficient.

Side note: I used the "Exifer" freeware program to add descriptions and tags to this image and then uploaded the image to Flickr and whatdya know the tags and descriptions automatically showed up in flickr. Nice.

Mr Kecundo's Tea

Mr Kecundo's Tea
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is Mr. Kecundo (the Treasurer of the milk cooperative I was assisting) in his tea field. This was the first time I had seen tea up close. I had guessed it grew on bushes but never knew that for a fact which is kinda shameful being a sweet-tea-slurping southerner.

Grafting

Grafting
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Ok, a post or two before I said i don't know much about horticulture but I would think most aggies would at least understand (in principle) grafting, in this case I do but the farmer insisted on explaining the whole grafting process. It would have been fine but i am fairly light skinned and had gotten a bad burn the day before and didn't have any sunscreen so listening to a topic i already knew in the mid-day sun was not in my skin's best interest.

Anyway, the purpose of grafting here was that there was one variety of coffee which was well adapted to the local soil but another variety of coffee that didn't grow as well here but brought a higher price so they grafted the higher price variety onto the grows-better variety stump and then covered the grafted stem with a plastic bag to protect it.

No hatred of trees

No hatred of trees
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

One of the most unfortunate things I see in agriculture around the world is the wholesale destruction of forests. Kenya was no exception but I was amused to see that many fields had trees in them. No one offered an explanation for why they didn't chop down all the trees and they didn't think much of it. While at the tea factory I did see examples of forestry but that was the only place. Everywhere else I saw either scrub or fields in areas that I was fairly sure should have been forests.

In many developed countries the forests were originally decimated but now have come back (i.e. the forest coverage is not at historical lows for many developed countries [that’s not to say that logging is no longer an issue in these countries, in some cases it should be more of an issue because old growth areas are continuing to be cut when private land holders, who have land that has been logged before, could easily grow enough wood to meet demand])

Sorting the beans

Sorting the beans
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This setup is how they sort the beans (the high quality from the lower quality beans). At the top of this slough they put the beans (with the hulls) and then put the wooden dividers in and fill it with water. The different quality beans settle in the slough at different places. Unfortunately I can't remember whether the higher quality beans settle first (i think that is right) or if they settle at the end (don't think that is right but am not sure).

Coffee bean "hulls"

Coffee bean "hulls"
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This trip was quite an education, I learned that pineapples grow low to the ground and not on trees (hey, I never pretended to know much about horticulture) and that coffee beans were actually seeds in berries that grow on a bush.

Here is a pile of coffee "hulls", the discarded fruit that covered the beans/seeds. I asked they guy how they separated the beans from the skin but never got a straight answer. I thought that these skins would make good compost but I didn't see anyone using it as compost and I have to admit that most of the Kenyan farmers I met seemed to have a pretty good grasp of composting so I will assume there is a good reason for not composting these skins/hulls.

Cistern

Cistern
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This part of Kenya (central, around Mount Kenya) didn't seem to have a problem with water (though i seemed to be there during the rainy season) but in some places, especially the mountainous areas, they have cisterns to collect rain water.

As far as I could tell this was not collecting rain water but i was told that it was used for processing the coffee beans (pretty inefficiently too, details in another picture).

Coffee bean drying

Coffee bean drying
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

This is the coffee bean drying operation from a few feet back, nothing fancy but for some reason few farmers take this extra step.

Coffee bean drying (closeup)

Coffee bean drying (closeup)
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is a closeup of the dried (not roasted, hence the lighter coloring than most people are accustomed to) beans. Doing all this is a value added feature, apparently few farmers do this but when they do they are able to get higher prices for their beans.

Coffee bean drying

Coffee bean drying
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Here is a setup used to dry out the coffee beans. They lay out plastic (yellow) and plastic mesh on long tables with open wire mesh tops and then spread the beans out and cover them up to be left in the sun.

Coffee "plantation"

Coffee "plantation"
Originally uploaded by gaikokujinkyofusho.

Well its not exactly a “plantation” (I believe he said it was about 4 acres) but this guy (the chairman of the cooperative i was assigned to) was considered (locally) a pretty big coffee grower. He did have a (seemingly) organized setup and had the hill nicely terraced with little sign of erosion (and it had been raining cats and dogs for the past week).

I have to admit, i knew nothing about coffee (and still know little) but the politics and moral flexibility that is pervasive in the production and trade of coffee is appalling. I can't pretend to understand it all and i know that raw produce of course goes for a lot less than finished product but seeing a farmer get ~$.15/lb of coffee really makes one wonder (when i can pay as much as $5+ for a cup of coffee at a coffee shop).