Two missions meet

Thirteen members of the Texas National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Team that is training at Camp Atterbury in Indianapolis visited Amish Acres prior to its upcoming deployment to Gazni, Afghanistan. Their mission calls for military members with expertise in farming, raising livestock and cultivating natural resources to help develop and monitor projects which will improve the agricultural production Afghanistan’s rural farming communities.

The team spent several hours with Richard Pletcher, founder and CEO of Amish Acres, touring the historic farm. The purpose of the visit was to learn more about Amish culture and sustainable farming practices that relate to the culture and conditions they will encounter in Afghanistan. Amish Acres preserves the farming methods used for 137 years on the Stahly-Nissley-Kuhns farm which is listed in The National Register of Historic Places.

The tour covered food preservation, weaving loom construction, egg incubation, water cisterns, barn building, and private educational system. Much of the agricultural infrastructure of Afghanistan has been destroyed by decades of war where the average life span is forty five years. The team is made up of specialists that include small and large animal veterinarians, a bee keeper, female empowerment officers, engineers, agronomist, and public relations officer. They will be charged with teaching Afgans how to build grain mills, introduce new wheat seed, developing canning and juicing factories for harvested vegetables and fruits, building cool storage facilities to store harvested crops operated by solar panels, overseeing micro-slaughter facilities to increase sanitization of livestock meat, launching vet clinics focused on de-worming livestock, advising on reforestation projects, and increasing crop yields for commercial use.