Obama Says New Afghan Policy Will Focus Assistance on Agriculture

In an address last night outlining his strategy on Afghanistan and Pakistan from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., President Barack Obama identified agriculture as an area where his administration will focus its assistance on to enhance its civilian strategy and "make an immediate impact in the lives of the Afghan people." Additionally, the White House released a fact sheet entitled, "The Way Forward in Afghanistan," which notes that the administration's "top reconstruction priority is implementing a civilian-military agriculture redevelopment strategy to restore Afghanistan’s once vibrant agriculture sector."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday at a hearing entitled, "Afghanistan: Assessing the Road Ahead," said the administration will be "delivering high-impact economic assistance and bolstering Afghanistan’s agricultural sector – the traditional core of the Afghan economy" in an effort to "create jobs, reduce the funding that the Taliban receives from poppy cultivation, and draw insurgents off of the battlefield."

For more information on the administration's polices towards agricultural development in Afghanistan, visit our Ag & Food Policy Library.