It's Not War, It's "Kinetic Activity"

I learnt a new term last week - "Kinetic Activity". This is the term used by the US to describe the fighting/counter insurgency activities going on here. So in future, we shall not refer to it as the War in Afghanistan, but the Kinetic Activity in Afghanistan!

Anyway, the reason I came across this term is that I have been providing input to a new program that aims to build stability and economic development in "post-Kinetic" areas of the country. The thrust behind this is that once an area has been stabilised through military activity, a team of local experts move in to develop work programs, infrastructure improvements, health, education etc - anything that helps to stabilise the region long term.

This is in response to a lot of criticism levelled at the national and international forces that once an area has been secured, everyone moves onto the next hot spot. The vacuum left behind encourages anti-government groups to re-establish, starting the whole cycle again. It sounds obvious, but up until now this has not been a clear part of the planning.

With agriculture making up the largest sector of rural employment, the Ministry is putting together a program that can be implemented in the first 100 days after security improves, and then some further long-term actions after this. This will concentrate on training farmers as well as providing basic inputs including tools and fertilisers. There will also be a strong focus on veterinary services, and a poultry program to assist female farmers.

How successful this program will be depends on the support it receives from international donors, as well as the military, but we are all hopeful this is a significant step in the right direction. And we will know soon enough, with the first 5 districts selected and plans to get activities on the ground already well advanced.

Just an update

It has been a while since I updated things from Kabul, so I thought a brief thought was in order!
The main reason for no updates is that I have just had a month holiday back in Sweden - it was great to get away and not think too much about things back here.
The latest news is that it looks like Hamid Karzai has comfortably won re-election. Opinions are divided as to whether this is a good thing or not, but from the perspective of our project, the main concern is whether the result will be accepted by everyone, and if not, how much violence will result? On top of that, there was the air strike on two petrol tankers in Kunduz (one of our areas) that killed some civilians and has caused a lot of anger amongst the locals.
Despite some of these issues, we continue to make good progress with horticultural developments.
We are currently collecting interest from farmers for planting new orchards in Autumn. One of the key issues we faced was setting a price for the new orchards. We heavily subsidise the cost to the farmer, but there is some disagreement on how much farmers can afford. I proposed a higher cost, based on the belief that it is the almost 'economic' farmers we should be targeting - the ones who just need little help to become commercially viable. The quality of the trees we are providing is also excellent, and we provide technical support as well as fertilisers and some annual crop seed (for cash flow).
However, it was decided after much consultation that we would aim a little lower. We are charging around $50 for 0.2 of a hectare, which is about 20% or less of the actual cost.
The response so far from farmers has been excellent, which may suggest the price is too low??
Either way, we need to plant 1,700 hectares by March 2010, so no matter what the price, we are going to be busy!