Karzai Visits Farm Country

BY BILL HORD AND JEFFREY ROBB
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS

WEST POINT, Neb. - Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai saw Wednesday what he doesn't see at home - a prosperous countryside.

In a tour of agriculture-rich Cuming County, Karzai witnessed a working center-pivot irrigation system, rows of crops with no weeds, high-tech tractors and cattle penned and fed by the thousands.

In Afghanistan, many similar fields would be tilled, planted and harvested by hand, possibly producing illegal opium poppies, the country's biggest crop. Cattle or other livestock would graze in fields, not from feed bunks.

"We don't know how to do it (agriculture) as good as you do it here," Karzai said.

And for that reason, Karzai and his entourage of about 25 people took a heavily secured 90-mile ride from Offutt Air Force Base to the 5,000-head cattle feeding operation of Harry Knobbe.

Karzai began his two-hour visit to Cuming County in West Point, where a crowd of 250 greeted the president in a parking lot just off South Main Street.

Karzai stepped out of his limousine with a smile, greeted Mayor Marlene Johnson and shook hands with dozens of people standing along a barricade.

Karzai asked Dave Ortmeier how much it would cost for a three-bedroom home in West Point. Ortmeier's answer: $125,000. He later said that question showed Karzai to be down to earth.

"That was cool," Ortmeier said.

Others said Karzai was personable and sincere toward West Point residents. Mayor Johnson said the visit was "totally awesome."

Said Christy Steffen, "The world seems smaller now."

After greeting the crowd, Karzai climbed into a Suburban for the trip to Knobbe's feedlot near West Point.

Karzai told reporters that friends who visited Knobbe's farming operation a few years ago came back to Afghanistan with a report about a man who had 5,000 cattle and only five people working for him. "It is proven you can do that. I will share that with my people," Karzai said.

Afghanistan needs to modernize farming practices to help farmers produce profitable crops and end their economic reliance on opium production.

Karzai said the poppy crop, the raw material for opium, will be down by 30 percent this year, mainly because people have volunteered to stop planting it. He said he hopes opium production will drop another 30 percent next year and end within five years.

Abdul Raheem Yaseer, assistant director of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Center for Afghanistan Studies, said the country needs outside financial investment in agriculture so farmers can gain technical skills to improve profitability.

"Afghans have farming experience, but they don't have technical knowledge," Yaseer said.

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