Sixty members of the Missouri National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Team have returned home to a welcome ceremony at the National Guard training center just outside Jefferson City.
This was the third installment of the agribusiness team which teaches Afghanistan farmers to turn from raising poppy for opium production to other forms of agriculture. The group was praised for traveling 10-Thousand miles to some of the toughest terrain in the Middle East. Lt. Colonel Chris Jackson, the leader of the team, says it helped the Afghans with fertilization, soil testing, seed distribution as well as converting diesel well pumps to work on solar power.
The group never experienced hostile fire or hidden explosive devices, just Afghan heat that one day reached around 127.
