MAZAR-E-SHARIF, AFGHANISTAN The
toddler lies still, with vacant eyes staring into space.
His name is Tabor Shah. He’s 2 and bundled in a cold room in the pediatric
malnutrition ward of Civilian Hospital in this bustling city. Around
his neck he wears a leather pouch. It’s a holy roll, a gift from the
mullah to keep the devil away.
Tabor’s mother, Shaish, must feel the devil won’t leave her alone. One-by-one,
four of her children have died of disease in recent years. Tabor is
the only one left. She sits beside him on a bed in the bare cement room,
gazing at the boy while telling her story. She weeps.
Afghanistan’s roadside bombs, suicide attacks and opium production are
grave problems that threaten its struggling economy and budding democracy.
But a less sensational killer exacts a far more deadly toll. One of
the biggest dangers to the future of Afghanistan is chronic malnutrition,
a perennial plague that contributes to some of the highest infant, childhood
and maternal mortality rates in the world.
UNICEF estimates that 210,000 Afghan children under age 5 die annually
that’s 575 per day, enough to fill 25 classrooms in the United States.
Chronic malnutrition is a leading factor in their deaths, making children
susceptible to disease and stunting their growth and mental development.
UNICEF reports show that about 1,600 Afghan women die per 100,000 live
births that’s about one woman per 30 minutes one of the highest
maternal mortality rates in the world. Women whose hips are underdeveloped
due to malnutrition suffer increased difficulties in childbirth.
Afghan officials are finding hope in an unexpected new crop soybeans.
Soybeans are rich in protein, which promotes lean muscle growth, strong
bones and brain development. In the United States, the world’s number
one producer of soybeans, the meal from the plants is turned into animal
feed. Afghan leaders say exporting soy-based feed to neighboring countries
would provide a much-needed boost to the economy.
Afghan farmers say soybeans grow well in the country and do not require
an abundance of water or labor. In November, the Afghan government launched
the National Soybean Program in partnership with Nutrition Education
International (NEI), a Pasadena Calif.-based nonprofit organization.
In 2006, officials from three ministries Agriculture, Public Health
and Women’s Affairs will work with NEI to harvest the soybeans in
every province. The beans will be processed and distributed throughout
the nation.
Afghans are traditional people with no history of eating soybeans. So
a viable soy-protein source must respect eating habits and be affordable.
The NEI team has experimented successfully with adding 10 percent soy
flour to naan, the flat bread that’s a staple of the Afghan diet. In
taste tests, Afghans who tasted the bread said it did not change the
flavor or consistency but it increased the protein content by 57 percent.
Afghans eat naan for every meal and many are so poor it’s the primary
food they consume.
Afghan leaders are hopeful about the soybean’s potential.
“If this is implemented the problem of malnutrition will be solved,”
said Dr. Massouda Jalal, the current minister of Women’s Affairs and
a former presidential candidate.
The soybean could also provide farmers with an alternative to the poppy,
the country’s most notorious export, Afghan officials said. Afghanistan
produces 87 percent of the world’s opium from its bountiful poppy harvests.
The government and international community are working to reduce dependence
on the illicit product. Mohammad Sharif, Afghanistan’s deputy minister
of Agriculture, said farmers could grow soybeans in place of poppies,
though he says it can never be as profitable as the narcotic. “We look
at it as a cash crop,” he said of soybeans.
The Afghan soybean program is the vision of nutritionist Steven Kwon,
founder of NEI. Kwon is a full-time nutrition scientist for Nestle USA.
But since 2003 he has devoted his nights, weekends and vacation time
to improving nutrition in Afghanistan.
Kwon was 7-years-old when the Korean War ended in 1953. His family was
able to eat three meals a day, he said, but he saw many neighbors suffer.
Beggars who slept under a nearby railroad trestle came to his door every
morning. Friends at school skipped lunch because they lacked food. As
a boy, Kwon did not understand the cruelty of war. But he knew it made
people hungry.
After serving with the Korean Army in Vietnam where he witnessed war’s
destruction with adult eyes Kwon immigrated to the United States.
He earned his Ph.D., raised a family and rose up the ranks of Nestle
to become a senior nutrition scientist. In 2003, a friend doing aid
work in Afghanistan invited him there to deliver a nutrition seminar.
There, he saw men barely able to feed their families on $3 a day, hardly
enough to buy naan. Children and women, who were not allowed to visit
doctors under the Taliban, suffered especially.
Kwon recalls weeping and asking himself how he should respond: I’m a
trained nutrition scientist and I have lived my life very comfortably.
If I do not use my expertise and my heart to serve these people then
I will be betraying my obligation as a human being. What should I do?
How should I help these people?
The nutritionist took action.
“I received the teaching to love my neighbor,” said Kwon, who speaks
quietly with a Korean accent. “These poor people widows and orphans
these unfortunate people…I have a moral obligation to help people
who are less fortunate than me. I’m living a blessed life.”
Kwon has overcome numerous obstacles to birth the soybean program
but even more threaten its long-term success. Kwon has no previous development
experience, but he has assembled a team of experts in agriculture, finance
and government affairs who contribute to the project. Many participants
are from the Midwestern United States, where soybeans are king. Stine
Seed Company in Iowa donated the seeds for the trial plantings. Dr.
Leroy Hansen, an NEI board member and president of Iowa-based Insta-Pro
International, has provided free advice on processing. Agriculture experts
from the University of Illinois and other schools have also donated
their time.
And while billions of international aid dollars have been spent in Afghanistan,
Kwon and his team have self-financed most of their work. The organization’s
total expenses have been just over $150,000, though they will be growing
exponentially if the project goes according to plan. Much of the sum
came from Kwon’s own pocket, the balance from private donors and corporations.
Many of the other volunteers pay their own expenses.
NEI is cooperating with a government that many say is powerless and
corrupt. But while crooked dealing waylays many international projects,
no one yet has asked NEI for a bribe, Kwon said. He attributes his good
fortune to his approach to the Afghan people. Kwon has sought the approval
of national and regional Afghan leaders even those who are corrupt
or who grow poppies by appealing to their patriotism. His mantra is
that soybeans can save the lives of Afghan women and children, and it’s
well known they are dying. He seeks the permission of Afghan leaders
to cooperate with them and serve them to work together to save lives.
“What we’re trying to do is let our nutrition initiative stand on its
own,” Kwon said. “We’re not trying to buy their hearts, we’re winning
their hearts. That is our approach.”
In 2006 NEI set a goal to harvest 20,000 tons of soybeans. That’s enough
to possibly eliminate malnutrition for 2.4 million people, by Kwon’s
calculations. Kwon estimates it will take harvesting 210,000 tons of
soybeans annually to eliminate the malnutrition problem in the country.
It’s an ambitious goal that NEI wants to achieve in five years.
But successfully growing the crops, processing the beans and introducing
them to Afghans is an incredibly difficult task. Oval Meyers, an agronomist
from the University of Southern Illinois and an NEI consultant, said
the project might be moving too fast. Three to five years of trial harvests
would be ideal to ensure a crop could be successful in a country, he
said.
Meyers points out that soybeans do not have a long history in Afghanistan.
They were introduced in 1970 and grew well, but the experiment was stalled
by decades of war. NEI successfully harvested an acre in Mazar-e-Sharif
in 2004. The 2005 harvest in a dozen provinces was considered a success,
but yielded only about two tons of soybeans.
Meyers said he gives the NEI project 50-50 odds, maybe better.
“The potential is great, but not without a high element of risk,” Meyers
said. “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.”
Officials from UNICEF have also expressed skepticism about NEI’s stated
goals, which they deem optimistic to the point of being potentially
harmful. Edward Carwardine, head of public information for UNICEF Afghanistan,
said there are already high expectations for international work in the
country, and Afghan people want to see results. People must not create
a false set of expectations that could isolate the Afghans if things
go wrong, Carwardine said. Soybeans are one approach to helping eliminate
malnutrition, but they shouldn’t be portrayed as the answer, he said.
“If you present it as ‘The Solution’ then people will be disappointed
if they don’t see that,” he said.
Kwon is unbothered by his critics and determined to push forward. Waiting
for more trial harvests isn’t an option when so many people are dying,
he said. NEI and the Afghan government are now racing to accomplish
their goals. The Ministry of Agriculture is recruiting thousands of
farmers to grow soybeans this year. Most need to be trained because
they have no experience with the crop, which will be planted in May,
and then again in the summer.
Mark Henning, the program manager in for Joint Development Associates
International (JDA), an American agriculture development organization
in Mazar-e-Sharif, is not involved with the NEI program. He said soybeans
are such a new crop that it’s still unknown whether they will grow well
enough to produce an advantageous yield for farmers.
Farmers who have experimented with soybeans say they have potential.
Standing on his land about 10 kilometers west of Mazar-e-Sharif, Nasim
Karim, 28, said he thinks soybeans are an excellent crop. In 2005, Karim
grew several plots of soybeans in partnership with JDA. The soybeans
thrived, Karim said.
“Compared to other crops it’s good, but the other thing is that there
is no market,” he said. “What we grow depends on the market.”
The market for opium will remain high, Henning said, because it’s a
fixture of the economy and farmers grow it to survive. Soybeans can’t
compare to poppies in terms of profit, he said. Farmers can produce
about 28 kilograms of opium resin per acre annually, which brings them
about $560, he said. The opium income is good money, but not great considering
the intense labor required to harvest the poppies, he said.
Kwon said NEI would serve as the initial market for the soybeans grown
by Afghan farmers. NEI will pay farmers about $266 per acre of soybeans
if they have the expected yields. That’s more than twice what they would
be paid for wheat or cotton, Kwon said.
As NEI hustles to recruit and train farmers, the organization is working
in cooperation with the Afghan government to build factories to process
the soybeans into soy flour, oil and meal for animal feed. These factories
cost millions of dollars and must be ready by September, so Kwon is
raising funds. Also, Afghan-American businessmen have pledged their
support to the project and are working to establish the factories.
As the demand for soybeans grows in Afghanistan, the market will support
the farmers who grow the plants, Kwon said. Kwon and the Afghan leaders
aim to create the new industry in the next five years.
marshall.allen@earthlink.net