Agriculture and Provincial Reconstruction Teams: Assessing the Effectiveness of Agricultural Advisor Projects in Afghanistan

摘要

The U.S. Government states that agriculture is its most important nonsecurity priority in Afghanistan and emphasizes the importance of agricultural development in Afghanistan's long-term process of stabilization and reconstruction. The extent to which U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) advisors serving on Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) contribute to the reconstruction of Afghanistan's agricultural sector is examined through an analysis of these advisors' final reports. These reports indicate that agricultural advisors are overcoming early operational challenges and that they are increasingly promoting project sustainability, which suggests a possible maturation of USDA advisors' role on PRTs. Overall, USDA advisors are achieving their objective of building the capacity of local officials and are moving toward better project sustainability. However, advisors' ability to conduct projects is still significantly hindered by a lack of USDA-specific funding. Also, because advisors report only project implementation-based data, insufficient information is provided to permit adequate evaluation of PRT agricultural projects or to demonstrate their community impact. Creation of a simple monitoring and evaluation system would permit USDA advisors to demonstrate project outcomes and show progress toward the reconstruction of Afghanistan's agricultural sector.