17 November 2003
Iraqis Want Exchanges in Agriculture, USDA's Veneman Says
Agriculture secretary returns from Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan
Iraqis working in agriculture want to establish partnerships and exchanges with U.S. agricultural colleges and universities, acquire new technology and gain access to scientific information that can be shared with all of the country's farmers and ranchers, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman says.
Briefing reporters November 14 just after returning from a trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, Veneman said agriculture plays an important role in the economic and social lives of a majority of people in the three countries, yet the sector has suffered from years of hostilities, neglect, under-investment and poor policies.
Veneman met with government officials and educators in all three countries. She said that all are making progress toward achieving market-driven economies.
With a long agricultural tradition, Iraq has "enormous potential to provide a good living standard and higher quality of life for its 28 million people," she said. The country, she noted, has good natural resources and climate, an educated and enterprising population and a "useful" infrastructure that includes good roads in parts of the country that can be used to move goods.
With donor assistance, much can be improved in Iraq "in a relatively short period of time," Veneman said. In comparison, she said, Afghanistan will require "far more time."
Veneman said Iraqis need access to the Internet as well as to teacher and student exchanges in order to tap into the latest information on research, practices and technology. She said the U.S. Department of Agriculture is encouraging U.S. universities to be partners in such exchanges.
Iraq also needs to rebuild its laboratories and research infrastructure, which once was of "quite high quality," she said.
In Afghanistan, a major U.S.-funded road project expected to be completed soon will make a "tremendous difference" in the country's economic progress, Veneman said. The country is also using U.S. aid in reforestation projects and in redeveloping its fruit sector, she added.
However, the secretary said, one of the greatest challenges expressed to her by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai and Agriculture Minister Sayed Hussain Anwari is encouraging farmers to make the transition from producing opium poppies to growing and selling profitable legal crops.
Veneman said the United States wants Uzbekistan to "hasten and broaden" the process of transition to a market economy. Uzbekistan's government needs to increase the openness of the country's economy, she said.
Veneman added that the United States continues to donate food aid and technical assistance in agriculture to Uzbekistan.
Following is a transcript of Veneman's briefing:
(begin text)
Remarks by Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman
To the National Association of Farm Broadcasters Annual Convention
Via Satellite from Washington D.C.
November 14, 2003
MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, it brings me a great honor to be able to now introduce for you our Secretary of Agriculture, Ann Veneman. She has been a long friend of the National Association of Farm Broadcasters [NAFB]. She was sworn in as the 27th Secretary of Agriculture for the U.S. Department of Agriculture on January 20, 2001. Her lifelong commitment to food and farm issues, along with her bipartisan approach to solving problems and confronting new challenges are reasons that explain why she was chosen by our President, George W. Bush, to serve in his Cabinet, and unanimously confirmed as well by the U.S. Senate.
Growing up on a family farm in a small rural community, Ann Veneman understands well the issues and the importance of American farmers and ranchers and has spent much of her career dedicated to food and agriculture issues, advancing sound U.S. farm and food policies.
Ladies and gentlemen, from Washington, D.C., just home from a foreign land, might I introduce to you our 27th Secretary of Agriculture, Ann M. Veneman.
Good morning.
VENEMAN: Good morning, and thank you Jeff for that kind introduction, and I want to congratulate you on being selected as the NAFB president-elect. We always look forward to working with the Farm Broadcasters, and I know that over the next year we will look forward very much to working with you.
And congratulations on your 59th Annual Meeting. I know you've put a lot of hard work into this program, and I want to say thank you also to the outgoing president, Tom Brand, for everything that he has done at NAFB and for his outstanding leadership.
I had actually hoped to be with you today, and this is the third year in a row that I have addressed you by satellite from the Department. In 2001, we had just returned from Doha, Qatar, where we launched the Doha Development Agenda of WTO [World Trade Organization] negotiations.
And then last year, as you know, I was unable to travel due to my treatment for breast cancer, but I still have the token of support that all of you gave me at that time, and I truly appreciate the tremendous support that you have continued to give me.
We, this year, just this morning, only about an hour-and-a-half ago, I got back into the office, having traveled to the Middle East for the last four or five days, and we were truly honored to have one of your own, Colleen Callahan, join us on this mission.
We visited Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq. They are three very different countries with different circumstances. We had a very full agenda, meeting with Ministers of Agriculture and other ministers and other leaders of the countries, including President Karzai in Afghanistan.
We have had the opportunity to get on the ground in all three of these countries to see their local markets and many food and agriculture projects that are underway. We met with professors at the College of Agriculture in Baghdad and learned about their efforts to rebuild an institution that's been left really for the last 30 years with not much support. And we met with farmers in Northern Iraq to hear firsthand about their issues and opportunities.
We also had the opportunity to see a variety of projects that helped women in these countries, including programs that use our food aid in bakeries to help provide employment for women in Afghanistan and provide low-cost food for women and children from that bakery.
We visited a health center that was teaching women basic skills in health care and child-raising in Afghanistan, and we had the opportunity to hand out first-aid kits to them and to really talk with them and learn so much about how things have changed since Afghanistan has been liberated.
Overall, we found that people in all of these countries are tired of conflict, abuse, repression, insecurity and neglect. They are eager to build better lives for themselves and thankful for the opportunity for stability and normalcy.
There is one common theme that was evident -- agriculture is very, very important in all of these countries. Agriculture policy plays a very important role in the economic and social lives of a majority of the people and a sector suffering in every case from hostilities, but also serious neglect, whether it's under investment, poor policies or exploitation.
Enormous potential exists for improvement. Everything is needed, but careful selection of assistance will pay them big dividends. Progress is being made by the American efforts to instill Democratic principles, market economies and improvements in economic rebuilding.
Conditions in all countries were a long time in the making and will require a long time to change. They can't be overcome at once, but the efforts now are well underway, and we saw many examples during our trip of just that happening.
These are three countries that are in transition, each in vastly different ways and from varying starting points, but all headed to a common point of a pluralistic society and a market-driven economy.
Uzbekistan begins from long decades of repression and economic mismanagement, but with a reasonable infrastructure and educated population. New technology, capital investment and improved economic policies are its challenges.
Afghanistan is ravaged from decades of Soviet repression and exploitation, factional fighting and Taliban terror. It begins with very little infrastructure, little literacy or economic policy base; yet the people are enterprising, they're committed, and the challenge of those in the donor community is enormous.
I think it was most telling to see so many people in Afghanistan show so much appreciation for the American presence there for what Americans have done for them and the plea that "please don't leave."
Iraq, too, is a very special case. It is well endowed with resources. It has better infrastructure than certainly Afghanistan, but it is badly in need of upgrading and a generally well-educated society. One person we met with described it as a rusty factory that needed some polishing and repair.
Major challenges are in instilling democratic principles in a society with little such tradition and developing appropriate market policies where central direction has come to be the tradition. However, it has enormous potential and could have a relatively short pathway under the proper circumstances.
In Iraq, one was struck by the squander of the enormous potential of the country, the squander of human resources, the squander of natural resources, and the opportunities for gainful interaction with neighbors and the international community at-large.
It is really hard to overstate the costs of the repression, brutality, bad policies and exploitation. This is a country with a good natural resource base, an accommodating climate, and educated and enterprising population and reasonable infrastructure. It has enormous potential to provide a good living standard and higher quality of life for its 28 million people.
This country has a long agriculture tradition. For example, wheat was cultivated for centuries, well before the time of Christ, but the sector suffers from decades of isolation, and neglect and outright terrorism by Saddam Hussein, who often cut off water into some of the most productive agriculture areas.
Now, the needs are enormous, but the most pressing needs can be addressed within the national reconstruction efforts, infrastructure rebuilding and development of appropriate market-oriented policies, and with special, more immediate efforts to upgrade their yield, crop and livestock, enhancing technology and education and extension skills. Rebuilding Iraq's agriculture sector will greatly improve rural and urban incomes and expand longer-term market potential generally.
Iraq was once a significant commercial market for U.S. farm products, with sales approaching $1 billion in the 1980s. It has the potential, once again, to be a significant commercial market as its population enriches its diet with growing incomes.
It is useful to contrast Iraq to Afghanistan. We found that Iraq has far more resources, and useful infrastructure, and a far better educated and trained population. For example, in parts of Iraq, we saw four-lane roads busy with truck traffic moving goods. Whereas, in parts of Afghanistan, there were no roads and no movement of goods.
Iraq can be much improved in a relatively short period of time. Afghanistan too can be improved, but I believe it will require far more time and donor assistance. A very big difference in Iraq is the difference between the North and the South, owing in large part to the fact that the Saddam Hussein regime had much less control over the North in the last dozen years.
The progress there in the North is more accommodating to the business environment. It is clearly evident and it suggests that there are lessons to be learned there and especially in the agriculture sector, where we could apply many of the things that have changed in the north and apply those lessons to the South.
In fact, we had the opportunity to meet with both President Talabani [Jalal Talabani, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan secretary general and member of the presidential committee of the Iraqi Governing Council], the current President of the Governing Council in Iraq, who comes from the North, as well as the Minister of Public Works, who also comes from the North, and we also had the opportunity to visit the North itself and meet with provincial agricultural officials there. It is clear they've made a great deal of progress, and it's clear that this kind of progress can be a model for what can be done in other parts of the country over time.
As I met with many of the agriculture leaders and university presidents, and even the farmers in Iraq, several things emerged as important next steps.
First, they're in desperate need of information. They feel as if they have been left behind in learning about the kinds of changes that have taken place in every sector, but especially agriculture. They want more extension, they want teacher exchanges, student exchanges, and frankly they don't have use of the Internet, which really, in many instances, precludes them from getting the latest information on research, and practices and technology.
They need to rebuild their labs and their research infrastructure, which was once really quite high quality, both within the university system and within the government structure. And there's need for a strategic look for where Iraq should go from here in its agriculture systems.
We reiterated that it's important not just to rebuild what was there before, which is really a product of the '50s but to look forward and see what is needed for the future.
We also visited in Iraq a reforestation project, which was growing trees and looking at the possibility of then replanting in many areas where Saddam Hussein's regime had simply removed forests and trees from all around the country.
In Afghanistan, people are tired of repression and exploitation, the Soviet era and then the factional fighting of the warlords, and then the repression of the Taliban. They want an opportunity for stability and to develop their lives the best way they can.
Last February, I had the opportunity to have a meeting with President Karzai here in Washington. We talked a lot about the importance of the agriculture sector and about where they needed to go from here. We had another very good meeting while we were in Afghanistan and also with his Ag [Agriculture] Minister, who we most recently met in Sacramento at our Science and Technology Conference.
As you look at the agriculture sector, conditions are improving in infrastructure development especially and??? around the country. The new USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development]-funded road connecting important parts of the interior to the capital will be completed soon. This will make a tremendous difference in allowing the movement of goods around the country.
Other projects are also progressing, and the countryside is experiencing greater stability and a critical element for economic progress. One of the issues that was raised both by President [Hamid] Karzai and by the Agriculture Minister, Mr. [Sayed Hussain] Anwari, was the continued problem of poppy production in the agricultural areas of Afghanistan. Because of the high price for that production, many farmers have converted to that in order to make a living. So there's a tremendous challenge in the area of agriculture with regard to how to transition farmers into profitable crops that are legal.
There are also, in Afghanistan, the provincial reconstruction teams or PRTs, as they're referred to, and they are formed to go out into local areas around Afghanistan, and they are proving very effective in putting key advisers, both civilian and military, into areas to address the most critical needs such as health, justice, education, and agriculture as part of a packaged concept.
There are four of these teams now operating, and others are expected to be up and running very soon. One of the things that we learned was that the PRTs are very reliant on the agriculture people that are part of the teams. Agriculture is such a critical part of the economy, and USDA currently has personnel active in the PRTs, and we will continue to provide personnel to assist in these PRTs as more are organized in the future. It is clear that they really recognize the importance of agriculture to so many of these communities.
Other areas moving forward include reforestation and development of the fruit sector for which Afghanistan has a long tradition.
Another interesting transformation, and many of you have had heard about the extreme repression of women in the Afghan society before the changes that have taken place. Women have been long repressed and exploited, rather than treated as a contributing resource in economic development.
We observed an eagerness among women to assume a growing role in society, to gain access to education, improved health care, and to participate actively in all aspects of civil society.
As I mentioned before, we visited a women's bakery project, where U.S. wheat that had been donated to the World Food Program was being used to bake bread that was then given and sold to poorer women at a reduced cost.
In Uzbekistan, which is a former Soviet republic, the country really still reflects the negative effects of decades of central planning and exploitation. Moreover, the transition to a market economy has been rather slow and difficult. Some progress is evident, and the United States, through its various activities, attempts to both hasten and broaden the transformation process.
For example, in agriculture, our food aid efforts have been directed both to the most vulnerable groups in society and to encouraging and expanding market-oriented activities.
Uzbekistan has been a strategic ally of the United States, particularly since 9/11. It was one of our first supporters in Afghanistan, providing us key Air Force bases, air bases, to allow us to conduct the activities in Afghanistan. They were also a key supporter, and have continued to be a key supporter in our efforts in Iraq. And so we remain committed to assisting this country in its political and economic transformation.
Our food assistance and economic development and other activities are oriented to assist in their transformation. We announced, when I was there, that our food aid proceeds will be utilized in projects to assist agriculture development. Progress in developing agriculture and food has been made, but very slowly. Creating an economic environment conducive to widespread adoption of new technology and attraction of capital investment to the sectors remains a challenge. Greater openness in the economy would be useful in meeting these challenges.
What I've tried to do is give you some kind of overview, a sort of overview of this trip, and I'd be happy to discuss it more in questions and answers. But before I close, I want to say a word about the tremendous efforts by our men and women who are serving in these countries. They are doing an outstanding job to fight terrorism and restore the lives of so many people.
Last night, we had dinner with the troops in Mosul, Afghanistan, in the Northern regions. This is where the 101st Airborne Division that you hear so much is located. I think we were all struck, as we walked into this dining hall, with the vast size of this room, the number of meals being served and the number of soldiers who were there.
There were stories that we heard from the soldiers as we sat and joined them for dinner about what they were doing in this area of the country, but I was most struck by some of the things that they are doing in their spare time while they're there. One soldier told us that he has been working with youth groups to encourage sports activities. They have refurbished some of the stadiums. They have started youth soccer teams and are finding tremendous response from all of this.
Some of the soliders are also working with their hometowns in America and joining them with villages in a kind of "adopt a village" or "sister city" effort to help some of these villages in the North.
Then, there are the people like Danny Woodyard, who is a reservist from Arkansas, but he's also a USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] employee. He works in our General Counsel's Office in Arkansas. Danny Woodyard has been, as the Minister of Agriculture in Iraq calls it, his hero. He went in early on, into the Ag Ministry, and found the appropriate people to contract with to rebuild the ministry, which had been very destroyed in many ways by the activities of the war, and Danny has done a tremendous amount in standing up this Ministry of Agriculture, and he's done it as a reservist.
Ken Rudisill is another reservist from the University of Florida, who is a horticulture and pest management specialist, and he too has been critical in rebuilding the ministry and opening that ministry back up in Agriculture.
Others were an APHIS [Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service] veterinarian who's been actively helping in the agriculture sector as well. And then just yesterday morning, as we were having breakfast, we met a gentleman named Guy Wood, another reservist from Texas, a plant specialist and a farm broadcaster. He's from Lubbock, Texas, and he reminded me that he had interviewed me when I was there. I know that Colleen is going to have some more to say about him when she talks to you later today.
I want to thank Colleen again for participating in this trip. She was a tremendous asset to our trip and a great participant, and I want to thank all of you for all that you do to help get the word out to our farmers and ranchers all around the country every day.
Thank you very much.
MODERATOR: Secretary Veneman, there's a tremendous round of applause for you here in Kansas City, and I want to thank you and your staff for your willingness to work with us over the last several months. We just completed our Voice of Agriculture series. It was so helpful and thank you for that. We wish you could have been with us, but we understand your devotion to the industry, not only in the U.S., but to the American cause, and thank you for putting yourself in harm's way to continue this.
I'm about to hand the controls to Orion Samuelson, as our broadcasters prepare to come to microphones for a few questions.
The one that I would offer in our transition here is, when I talked to some soybean farmers across the country, they said that at one time Iraq really had a thriving poultry industry and that the individuals use a lot of poultry in their diet. Under the Saddam regime, that poultry was taken away, and the market dried up for the U.S.
What are opportunities that are immediately ahead and how U.S. business can prosper, but also help the Iraqi people?
VENEMAN: Well, I think that's a very good example. There is certainly a lot of poultry used in the Iraqi diet. There has been a thriving poultry industry in the past, and in some areas poultry is a very important segment of the agricultural economy.
We saw meat and poultry in the markets yesterday. We saw beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. I mean, the agriculture sector has tremendous potential, and in fact it is producing some outstanding products at this point, but I do believe that poultry is a sector that has the opportunity for a significant growth.
And as you say, that can provide great opportunities for our farmers to provide particularly feed grains to these poultry producers because there are not a lot of feed grains that are produced in Iraq. Despite the fact that it is a very agriculturally rich country, it has not traditionally produced much in the way of feed grains.
I think that, like all developing countries, as you see an increase in the incomes, in the standard of living, one of the things you will see is more access to different kinds of food, and we know that protein, and protein sources, are some of the first that many people, then, in developing countries first buy. And so we believe there is a growing opportunity for the poultry industry and potential then for our feed grain producers.
SAMUELSON: Madam Secretary, a quick question before we go to other farm broadcasters. I saw your visit on CNN with Wolf [CNN broadcaster Wolf Blitzer]. He kept asking you about security. Can you give us any idea of how surrounded you were by American forces in Iraq?
VENEMAN: Well, we certainly had a lot of security with us, but there are American forces all around. We were obviously traveling on military airplanes. So, as I said to Wolf Blitzer, I felt very secure while I was there, and I was not afraid.
I mean, certainly, there are things going on Iraq, but there are things going on in the streets of America. But we were able to move around, we were able to visit with people. Particularly in the North, I think that was, you could really see the difference up there of what was happening in the North, what was happening where people had had more time, say, a dozen or so years, to really create a much more open economy, and we were able to go out and walk in the markets, to visit with children, and it was really quite remarkable.
And, in fact, I would say that it was a little more open than I expected that I would have access to, in terms of walking the markets and so forth. But, again, I felt safe and secure the entire time we were there. We did have a large amount of security, but in a way that allowed us to do the kinds of things that we needed to do to get a flavor of the agriculture, to get a flavor of the activities, and to get a flavor of the need in the country.
SAMUELSON: Stuart Doan with a question.
QUESTION: Madam Secretary, Stuart Doan, with the Ag Network in Little Rock [Arkansas]. First of all, welcome back.
VENEMAN: Thank you.
Q: You were quoted by Reuters earlier in the week, saying the United States would aggressively pursue the Iraqi wheat markets and [inaudible] as well. My understanding is you met with the Iraqi Governing Council during your trip there. Did you happen to mention to them the possibility of U.S. export credit guarantees being extended for purchase of wheat and perhaps rice? And is the Department now in a better position to judge the credit worthiness of Iraq, based on the trip there by you and Dr. Penn [Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign agricultural Services J.B. Penn]?
VENEMAN: I think I heard most of your question. We're having a little audio difficulty here, so hopefully I heard your question.
I didn't discuss sort of particulars with regard to export programs with the Governing Council. We did have a number of meetings with the Ag Ministry. We were talking about what kinds of programs maybe appropriate to be using. I think there are a number of programs that USDA will be looking at as we go forward. One is we heard a great desire for things like exchange programs, training extension. And I want to reach out to our colleges and universities around the country and encourage them to look at what the opportunities may be in Iraq for partnerships.
For example, when we visited the College of Agriculture at Baghdad University, which was actually I think our first stop when we got to Baghdad, this was a college that really had been formed with the help of the University of Arizona in the early 1950s. They had date trees that had been planted by the University of Arizona. They had an old tractor that had been donated, and they were very proud of that partnership. They had had many professors. This is the kind of thing they'd like to recreate, exchanges, access to information, getting new technology and extension information to their farmers and ranchers, rebuilding the institutions and structures like extension.
Because of the strong desire on the part of so many of these people to have some access to what's going on in other parts of the world, we will be looking at things like instituting our Cochran Program in Iraq. We'll be looking at our student exchange programs and teacher exchange programs and, as well, as the market develops, we will be looking at market development programs, as you mentioned.
I think it's too early at this point to talk specifically about credit guarantees, but it's certainly something we'll be looking at.
As you know, the oil-for-food program is phasing out, but contracts have gone through next June. So as those contracts are finished mid next year, we will be expecting that we will be looking at fully competing in that market.
SAMUELSON: Any other questions?
Q: Madam Secretary, Brad Harding from Peoria, Illinois.
When I talk about food aid to my listeners and viewers, they're really impressed with what we're doing with Iraq, but they always ask is the value there when we have hungry people here at home? How do I share with them that there is a value to feeding our American people with food assistance, but also going overseas?
VENEMAN: Well, obviously, we think there's tremendous value, and there's needs both here at home, and there are needs abroad. I think what struck me most about being in Iraq, and in Afghanistan, is the price of failure there would be very high in terms of terrorism, in terms of protecting the world and protecting our country. We have taken bold moves to get rid of the terrorists, to move aggressively in these areas of the world where, if we don't succeed, the terrorists will.
And I think it's very critical that we continue to provide the kinds of assistance in these countries that will allow us, and the people of Iraq, and the people of Afghanistan to succeed, to become market economies, to grow and succeed in their efforts as they move forward.
I think one of the things that struck me, as I said before about Afghanistan, in particular, was the appreciation for what the United States has done and the strong desire for us to continue to be there to assist. We felt that very same thing in Iraq. There is a strong appreciation, despite what we may hear on the news every day, of what we have done.
One person described it to me, living in Iraq over the past 20 years or so under the Saddam Hussein regime, as it has been as if all of our people are in jail. And I think that is only one example of the kinds of horror stories we heard all around the country as we traveled about what this regime was like, about how it was repressing its people and about how they now have hope for the future and really are going to try to do everything they can to take advantage of that hope and opportunity.
SAMUELSON: Madam Secretary, our time for this session is coming to a close, and so before we say goodbye, is there a final statement you'd like to make?
VENEMAN: Well, again, I certainly want to thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. As you might note, I'm a little bit tired today. It's been a long four or five days, and we were flying all night. So I do appreciate your patience as I went through my remarks today.
I also truly appreciate the fact that we had a member of your organization on this trip with us. I think, again, she will have stories from so many individuals that we met in these countries that I think will give a more human face on what we are doing in this part of the world, how important it is and how we should continue to go forward, in an aggressive way, to help these people and to assist in the future.
And I again want to just say thank you to all of the farm broadcasters. I'm sorry I'm not with you in person, but hopefully I'll see you at your Washington meeting when you're here.
Thanks again.
(end text)
(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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