The U.S gave political asylum status to thousands of Afghans in the 1980’s. One Afghan Center was in California on the Union City / Fremont border not far from what became 'Little Kabul'. The people in the Afghan Center were very interested in helping their Afghan countrymen combat poverty and were excellent at determining what ideas might work. Their primary focus was lobbying organizations to help Afghanistan.
In the case of poultry, it was important to get as many Afghan people familiar with modern poultry production and modern small business practices as possible. The UN FAO Poultry Development Service in Rome Italy did an excellent job in this regard. If I remember correctly, UN FAO personnel conducted 1 hour courses every week on poultry production and small business development in many parts of Afghanistan. It took 6 months for an Afghan woman to complete their course.
The UN FAO personnel in Rome should answer the detailed questions that you posted since they were in charge of the technical direction of the FAO poultry program in Afghanistan. I believe that Afghan women will become major producers of poultry. I also believe that Afghan women will become excellent businesswomen. You may want to read the FAO report “Poultry Projects enhance lives of afghan women” and USAID report “Case Study of Poultry and Grape/Raisin Subsectors in Afghanistan” for more information on present status of poultry production in Afghanistan. It takes time for new ideas to be implemented. The Afghan government personnel may need more technical and business development help (and perhaps very limited policy help?).
I know in the 1980s that Bell Telephone Labs did a major internal study on why it took 15 years on average for new inventions to become commercial products. Many of the problems that the Bell System encountered in converting research to development and operation are exactly the problems that the FAO encountered. In particular, you need to train development and operation personnel in the new technology and finance the costs of starting development and operation facilities. Bell Labs management felt that researching a new idea costs 10% of the budget while developing the idea cost 90% of the budget. I fear that international development personnel may not have the necessary business experience to convert a new idea from research to development to operations. For example does the FAO have an expert who can increase exports to Afghanistan of the following supplies: basic home canning kits (consisting of a water bath canner, (6) 1-pint mason jars, (6) lids, canning guide, jar lifter, lid wand, canning funnel, bubble freerTM ), additional mason jars and lids, pressure canner/cookers, portable food storage facilities, greenhouse equipment, garden hand tools, garden fencing, garden equipment suitable for preparing large gardens for schools, small trucks for transporting supplies, garden seeds, nursery stock, and horticulture information?
I feel that Mojamma Jafar Emal has done an excellent job although I do not know him. He deserves the full support of the UN FAO, World Bank, USAID and the NGOs.
Paul Rigterink
Dr. Paul Rigterink