By Douglas Wissing
Sixty-four citizen/soldiers of the Indiana National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Teams were deployed in Khost Province, one of the Afghan-Pakistani border region’s most dangerous hotspots.
The Agribusiness Development Team’s 16 experts, protected by 35 Hoosier National Guard soldiers—both burly southern Indiana farm boys and urban guys from Gary, Indiana, use their varied civilian expertise—especially agricultural expertise—to win the trust of the Afghani rural population wavering between the influence of the Taliban and Kabul’s American-backed national government.
Journalist Douglas Wissing lived and worked with the National Guard troops as they helped farmers in the Khost region to improve their agribusiness and economic productivity.
