Progress 09/01/11 to 09/30/14

Outputs
Target Audience: Primary beneficiaries were MAIL/DAIL extension workers. Secondary beneficiaries were farmers. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has trained 473 MAIL/DAIL management, research and extension professionals, extension workers, and field technicians in 344 workshops and trainings in new agriculture techniques. Topics for workshops and trainings included postharvest for grain and horticultural crops, water management, wheat cultivation, integrated pest management, organic fertilizers, livestock nutrition and health, plant propagation, kitchen gardens, greenhouse and hoop house production, conservation agriculture, and fruit crop production. These workshops and trainings have been led and organized by Afghan staff and consortium technical faculty (i.e., professors and extension specialists from the US) to provide relevant and engaging experiences for Afghan extension workers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? All 355 extension workers trained by this project have adopted new technical and extension techniques and have produced 490 locally relevant extension materials, conducted 1267 village trainings, initiated 3191 on-farm demonstrations, and have reached 3405 farmers. The outcome of these activities has been the establishment of 185 Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) and 507 Farmer Field Demonstrations (FFDs) in many districts. FFSs and FFDs topics include integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, companion planting, improved crop varieties, greenhouse and hoop house production, kitchen gardens, and fruit orchards. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Accomplishments of the project include: · Trained 473 MAIL/DAIL management, research and extension professionals, extension workers, and field technicians in 344 workshops and trainings in new agriculture techniques. All 355 extension workers trained have adopted these new techniques and have produced 490 locally relevant extension materials, conducted 1267 village trainings, initiated 3191 on-farm demonstrations, and have reached 3405 farmers. · Established 10 Provincial Model Teaching Farms (PMTFs) at the extension research stations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh, Kapisa, Kunar, Samangan, Jowzjan, and Badakshan. There are two PMTFs in Kabul and one is dedicated solely to women farmers. The trainings at the PMTFs have spawned at total of 185 Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) and 507 Farmer Field Demonstrations (FFDs) in many districts across these provinces. FFSs and FFDs topics include integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, companion planting, improved crop varieties, greenhouse and hoop house production, kitchen gardens, and fruit orchards. · Organized 39 workgroups in the project provinces composed around thematic areas: five in Balkh (Cereals, Orchard Fruits, Vegetables, Industrial Crops, Livestock); four in Samangan (Cereal, Vegetable, Orchard, Livestock), five in Jowzjan (Cereal, Vegetable, Orchard, Livestock, Oil); four each in Kapisa, Panjshir, and Parwan (Cereal, Fruit, Vegetable, Livestock); six in Herat (Industrial Crops, Livestock, Cereal Crops/Pulses, Vegetable Crops, Orchard Crops, Women in Agriculture); three in Kabul (Postharvest, Vegetable Crops, Fruit Crops); three in Nangarhar (Cereal Crops, Horticulture Crops, Orchards ); one for Women in Agriculture-Kabul. The workgroups are composed of mainly of extension workers, with some of them that include farmers, sellers/buyers, and university faculty members. · Established a mini-fund proposal process to help support the activities of the workgroups. The mini-funds are used by the workgroups to fund seminars, workshops, trainings, course materials, publications, demonstration plots, and FFSs and FFDs. So far, 36 proposals have been submitted and 26 have been approved. Some of the proposals deal with conservation agriculture, greenhouse crop production, integrated pest management, and poultry production for women's groups. · Held two in-country annual conferences. The first conference emphasized the concepts behind this projects demand-driven extension model and workgroups. Sixty participants from Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Paktia, and Kunduz DAILs, as well as representatives from USDA, the US Embassy, Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance/Capacity Building and Change Management Program (VEGA/CBCMP), Afghan Agriculture Research and Extension Development Program (AGRED), DCA and USAID attended the 3-day conference. The second conference attracted more than 300 people from DAIL research and extension departments, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) representatives, and AAEP staff. The conference showcased the work done by AAEP in different provinces and fostered dialogue among extension workers from around the country. · Increased the types and quantity of vegetables grown for 534 women. This has had a direct positive impact on the nutrition and dietary diversity of households, as well as, the availability of food throughout the year. · Reduced the percent of postharvest grain losses among farmers by 22% by teaching farmers how to use inexpensive, hermetic storage techniques. · Won the 2014 USDA Secretary's Honor Award for Exceptional Service in the category of global food security.

Publications

Progress 09/01/12 to 08/31/13

Outputs
Target Audience: Extension workers, farmers, agriculture ministry staff, and agriculture university faculty Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project has trained 4839 extension workers, farmers, ag faculty and students in over 200 workshops and training in new agriculture techniques. Topics for training include postharvest, water management, wheat cultivation, integrated pest management, organic fertilizers, livestock nutrition and health, plant propagation, kitchen gardens, greenhouse production, and fruit crop production. Trainings have been led and organized by Afghan staff and consortium technical faculty (i.e., professors and extension specialists from the US) to provide relevant and engaging experiences for Afghan extension workers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Aside from the provincial model teaching farms at the extension offices, AAEP helped set up 404 farmer field schools in 177 villages across provinces that support a total of 154 farmers demonstrations. Though AAEP staff initiated these farmer schools and demos, all activities are maintained by farmers and supervised by local extension workers. Data for monitoring and evaluation purposes are also collected by local extension workers. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? AAEP will continue to build the capacity of the Afghan ministry extension workers and workgroups, to develop the provincial model teaching farms in Balkh, Herat, Kabul and Nangarhar, to extend training and information to the farmer field schools and demos, and expand work into other provinces, like Badakhshan, Jowzjan, Samangon, Parwan, Panjshir, Kapisa, and Laghman.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Accomplishments of the project include: · Trained 4839 extension workers, farmers, ag faculty and students in over 200 workshops and training in new agriculture techniques. About 10% of the extension workers have adopted these new techniques and are teaching them to other farmers in different villages. · Established four provincial model teaching farms at the extension research stations in Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, and Balkh. The teaching farms have set up a total of 243 demonstrations for extension worker participation. Demonstrations include integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, companion planting, improved crop varieties, greenhouses, kitchen gardens, and fruit orchards. · Set up 404 farmer field schools in 177 villages across provinces that support a total of 154 demonstrations for farmers to take part in and learn about new farming techniques. Demonstrations include integrated pest management, conservation agriculture, companion planting, improved crop varieties, greenhouses, kitchen gardens, and fruit orchards. · Organized workgroups in the project provinces composed around thematic areas: Balkh (Cereals, Orchard Fruits, Vegetables, Industrial Crops), Herat (Industrial Crops, Livestock, Cereal Crops/Pulses, Vegetable Crops, Orchard Crops, Women in Agriculture), Kabul (Postharvest, Vegetable Crops, Fruit Crops), and Nangarhar (Cereal Crops and Horticulture Crops). The workgroups are composed of extension workers, farmers, sellers/buyers, and university faculty members. · Established a mini-fund proposal process to help support the activities of the workgroups. The mini-funds are used by the workgroups to fund seminars, workshops, trainings, course materials, publications, demonstration plots, and farmer field schools. So far, fourteen proposals have been approved and fifteen more are going through the approval process. Some of the proposals deal with field crop production, greenhouse crop production, integrated pest management, and poultry production for women's groups.

Publications

Progress 09/01/11 to 08/31/12

Outputs
OUTPUTS: The AAEP project began in Afghanistan in January 2012 with the hiring of a Chief-of-Party (COP) and in May 2012 the hiring of Deputy-Chief-of Parties (DCOP) in Herat, Balkh and Nangarhar. AAEP goals for training progressed steadily with the implementation of teaching farms and training from May through September of 2012. AAEP priorities were realigned following the arrival of the DCOPs and priorities from the Directorates of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (DAIL) were determined through a very bottom-up process. The following are major activities that AAEP has accomplished to date: Postharvest of Grains:AAEP has conducted 135 grain storage trials in 27 villages in three provinces (Balkh, Herat and Nangarhar) for 18 DAIL extension agents and 873 farmers. The objective is to teach extension agents how to set up grain storage trials comparing Purdue Improved Crop Storage bags with traditional bags. The agents subsequently set up similar trials in local villages. In conjunction with these trials, AAEP has completed insect monitoring trap workshops in 20 villages in Balkh, Herat, Kabul and Nangarhar for 25 DAIL extension agents and 133 farmers. The objective of the workshops was to observe pests in storage and assess damage. Extension materials produced from these trainings included videos and "how-to" fact sheets. Teaching Farms: AAEP has established a Teaching Farm on the DAIL research farm and has held 4 training workshops for DAIL staff. The goal of the Teaching Farm and the workshops was to teach DAIL personnel about conservation agriculture and how to set up Farmer-Field-Demos (FFD) in the districts. About 25 extension agents and managers from 6 targeted Nangarhar districts and the central extension directorate attended each workshop: Workshop 1: introduction to Farmer-Field-Demo (FFD) concepts, land preparation and cultivation practices for summer cereal and legumes crop Workshop 2: FFD agro-ecosystem observation and analysis and weed management Workshop 3: introduction to fertilization (top-dressing and side-dressing), agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA)Workshop 4: Crop management, soil practical testing, agro-ecosystem analysis (AESA) Extension materials have been translated into Pashtu and are currently being translated into English. In September 2012, AAEP held a Field Day for the Teaching Farm. About 125 people visited the farm. Participants included farmer associations, farmers, DAIL extension agents, and various non-governmental organizations. With the help of DAIL agents, AAEP established 6 FFD sites in 6 selected districts. The 6 FFD associations are each made up of 25 volunteer members, for a total of 150 FFD members. Each FFD conducted a total of 4 trainings to date which were similar to the workshops at the Teaching Farm. The cumulative participation was 600 people. PARTICIPANTS: UC Davis Jim Hill, UC Davis, Principal Investigator David Glenn, AAEP Chief of Party Safi, AAEP-Kabul Office Manager Robert Morris, AAEP Deputy Chief of Party, Balkh Nauzatullah Nuhzat, AAEP-Balkh Program Assistant Mobin Maqsoodi, AAEP-Balkh Office Manager Masoud Karimi, AAEP-Balkh Office Assistant Chelo Abrenilla, Financial Analyst Nicholaus Madden, Project Coordinator Washington State University Chris Pannkuk, Principal Investigator Oumar Badini,, AAEP Deputy Chief of Party, Nangarhar Noor Ali Noor, Program Assistant, Nangarhar Awal Gul, Farm Manager Zargai, AAEP-Nangarhar Office Manager Mary Weitz, University Administration Staff Colleen Taugher, AAEP M&E Manager Purdue University Kevin McNamra, Principal Investigator Ray Clark, Purdue, Deputy Chief of Party, Herat Souleymane Kebe, Program Specialist, Herat Laura Bergoll, University Administration Staff University of Maryland Jim Hanson, Univ. of Maryland, Principal Investigator Michelle Glenn, interim AAEP Deputy Chief of Party, Women in Agriculture Marghuba Safi, interim AAEP Deputy Chief of Party, Women in Agriculture Melekte Truneh, University Administration Staff Becky Ramsing, Nutrition, Health and Wellness Educator, Women in Agriculture Collaborators Dutch Committee for Afghanistan (DCA) Raymond Briscoe, Country Programme Director,Veterinary Surgeon, DCA-VET, Kabul, Afghanistan. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for the AAEP project is the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MAIL) and DAIL staff and extension agents. The methods used to improve MAIL/DAILs extension capacity has been trainings/workshops, demonstrations, teaching farms, on-farm trials, focus groups, and workgroups. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Though the AAEP project officially started in October 2011, the project really did not get going until May 2012. This is how long it took to clarify financial support from USDA and to hire the Chief-of-Party (COP) and Deputy-Chief-of Parties (DCOP). Also, the transfer of funds from the consortium universities to the four provinces (Kabul, Balkh, Nangarhar, Herat) has been slow which has restricted spending. In general, it has been difficult to work with MAIL and DAIL due to the constant requests for support (for salaries, travel, equipment, etc.). These requests distract from the AAEP goals and take a lot of time and energy. As AAEP has become more settled, the DAIL officials have started to ask less about money, but this increased when AAEP asked for their help to setup teaching farms.In Balkh, little training has been done for postharvest of horticulture crops and protected agriculture due to a shift in DAIL priorities. AAEP-Balkh has mainly been involved with forming workgroups in wheat, saffron and cotton, setting up conservation agriculture plots for wheat in local villages to help AAEP-Nangarhar, and setting up wheat storage bags and wheat insect monitoring trials to help AAEP-Heart. The implementation of AAEP Monitoring and Evaluations (M&E) was delayed because of challenges to NIFA's award to Social Impact (SI) for M&E development. SI is the contractor tasked with designing M&E for several USDA programs in Afghanistan including AAEP. As a result, the AAEP consortium began to develop a plan independently.

Impacts
AAEP, using traps, has demonstrated to farmers that because of insect damage it is important to store grain properly. The PICS (Purdue Improved Crop Storage) bags demonstrate very simple concepts about proper grain storage. Grains must be clean and dry before storage and they must be stored under air-tight conditions. Both farmers and extension agents appreciate the new knowledge and technology and will use the PICS bags. Another goal for AAEP is to teach conservation agriculture systems to extension agents and farmers. Conservation agriculture is a very new concept for Afghan farmers. It involves planting in rows, furrow irrigation, planting cover crops, crop rotations, and crop variety selection. Also the concept of extension agents setting up Farmer-Field Demos (FFD) is new for them. In September, AAEP evaluated the six FFD sites that AAEP setup with DAIL to monitor FFD training sessions, meet the FFD farmers and conduct group sessions as well as to identify any problems of the farmers. From the evaluations AAEP learned that farmers and extension agents thought the FFD system was a great way to exchange information among farmers and to make group decisions. They appreciated the opportunity to share ideas, update knowledge and gain skills about conservation agriculture. However, the farmers did recommend that AAEP spend more time at the FFD sites to answer questions that come up, compromise with farmers about which crop varieties to plant, and help to ensure the local extension agent does his job.

Publications

• Clark, Ray. 2012. AAEPs Train-the-Trainer Program Focuses on Post-Harvest Grain Storage Losses in Afghanistan. In: USDA Newsletter.
• Morris, Bob. 2012. AAEP Supporting Female Involvement in Saffron Working Group and Grain Storage Trail in Balkh. In: USDA Newsletter.
• Glenn, Dave. 2012. AAEP Grain Storage Research Trial Sharing Knowledge with DAIL and Afghan Colleges in Kabul. In: USDA Newsletter.
• Gavin, Sara and Jim Hanson. 2012. MAIL and AAEP: Working together to focus on Womens Extension Services in Afghanistan (University of Marylands Family Food Security Team). In: USDA Newsletter and via internet(http://agnr.umd.edu/news/empowering-women-war-zone)