Planting 13,000 Fruit Trees

One of the unique aspects of supporting Trust in Education (TIE), which is a local and independent non-profit, is that contributors can get the “straight scoop” on what it takes to help the villagers move forward under current conditions in Afghanistan. This article is about what it took to successfully plant 12,891 fruit trees.

As many of you already know, the first hurdle to overcome was the lack of water on the hillside in Lalander due to decades of bombing that had destroyed the farmers’ aqueduct and irrigation systems. The villagers and TIE both agreed that once the hillside was restored it would be planted with fruit trees. The villagers agreed to this, despite the fact that cultivating opium would have offered them larger and more immediate returns.

TIE found three local Afghan engineers who each made a bid on the irrigation project. One was selected and the project was completed for $20,000. With the water in place, the next step was to find where to buy young trees in Afghanistan to both support the local economy and ensure that the trees would survive in the local climate. TIE found farmers in the valley that were able to supply the apricot and apple trees for planting.

Most of the 200 farm families went straight to work planting their new fruit trees when they arrived last March, however, there were reports of a few families bringing their trees to market in Kabul for desperately needed cash. Keep in mind that these trees won’t bear fruit for three to four years. We can never underestimate how difficult it is for the villagers to think “long term” after being in survival mode during 25 years of war. For too long the villagers have been forced to survive a day at a time.

While in Lalander, Budd learned from local farmers that they usually lose a third of their young trees due to rats eating the bark. TIE scrambled to help the villagers come up with an affordable solution. Poisons were discussed and decided against as the poison would kill other small animals as well.

Budd found a solution while driving through Montana, in July. He noticed that some farmers were using plastic tree guards to protect the base of their trees. The economics of shipping 13,000 tree guards from the U.S. to Lalander proved to be very expensive. Tom Courtright from Orchard Nursery in Lafayette helped find a solution that entailed using PVC plumbing pipe. The villagers found a supplier of PVC pipe in Kabul so that the farmers could make tree guards themselves at a cost of 45 cents a piece. They are, as of the writing of this newsletter, making the first 50 tree guards and testing them. The tree guards are a first in the valley and perhaps in the country.

There are sure to be more difficulties down the road, but nothing is insurmountable. What we are discovering is that a simple thing like tree guards is revolutionary for the Afghans. It is this exchange of ideas, which costs nothing, that makes such a big impact on their lives.