Small idea making a big difference in Afghanistan

  • Published
  • By Master Sgt. James Law
  • 455th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs
LAGHMAN PROVINCE, Afghanistan --  Provincial Reconstruction Teams are engaged daily in large-scale projects building roads, bridges, schools and medical facilities to help the Afghan government develop its infrastructure. They also contribute small ideas that have the potential for large-scale impact.

One such idea was to design and fabricate a hand-held seed spreader that can be used by farmers to spread fertilizer.

"Our Department of Agriculture representative came to me and said 'I heard you could design stuff, is there anyway to design a seed spreader?,'" said Staff Sgt. Tim Bayes, Laghman Provincial Reconstruction Team Engineering NCO in charge.

Afghan farmers currently spread their fertilizer by hand. This method places more fertilizer in some areas and less in others.

"If you go out there you can see the inconsistency in the growth patterns in the fields," Sergeant Bayes said. "If they can effectively spread the fertilizer so their growth pattern is consistent, it could increase their crops by 15 to 25 percent annually."

Understanding the impact the simple idea could have, Sergeant Bayes started the design taking into consideration the materials the local Afghan farmers have to use.

"We actually talked to our contractors and locals and asked what the people have around their farms," Sergeant Bayes said. "Nuts and bolts are pretty easy to come by, pieces of plywood or just chunks of wood, and tin cans or canvas bags were the materials we had to work with."

After one and half days of design, Sergenat Bayes met with the Department of Agriculture representative to review the blueprint and make final adjustments before building a prototype.

"It took me about half a day to build it," Sergeant Bayes said. "This is kind of different, a little bit unique compared to what we normally do, and it was fun to do it."

Sergeant Bayes also discussioned with the Afghan government's Department of Agriculture representative ways to build them cheaply and effectively and distribute them out. 

The sooner people can see what they are made out of and how they are made, they could easily build one themselves, he said.

"It not only helps them as far as income, but an increase in crops will also help supply and demand in the local economies," Sergeant Bayes said. "If it helps 10 farmers to produce more crops to help people, then it was worth it." 

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