Expanding agriculture education is the start to rebuilding Afghanistan and securing the world, says Purdue University graduate student Wali Salari.

"If we had a good economy we would not have this problem -- like al-Qaida and the Taliban," Salari said. "They would not be able to hire people from our country if there were jobs. It is good for the entire world."

Salari is one of 12 instructors from Afghan universities earning master's degrees through a broad Purdue College of Agriculture program aimed at boosting vocational and bachelor level education, training troops in agri-business and rebuilding agriculture education in the country.

Despite ongoing war, civil unrest and the unsettled presidential election, Purdue faculty has been collaborating with Kabul University, in the country's capital, to reinvigorate its agriculture program since 2002.

"If there is going to be economic growth and political stability in the country, the agriculture sector has to grow," said Kevin McNamara, professor of agricultural economics. He is leading Purdue's Afghan efforts. Up to 85 percent of available work in Afghanistan is in agriculture.

"To do that we are working with the U.S. government and supporting U.S. policy there. We are trying to help the country to develop the capacity to educate Afghans to play a role in the agriculture development."

Through a partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development Education Capacity Building Project, more than 50 Purdue faculty have helped to redevelop university-level agricultural education.

USAID awarded a $7 million grant to Purdue in 2007 and grants from federal and nonprofit groups have also been given since 2003.

The scope of the project includes renovating facilities, setting up teaching farms, offering staff development, and creating veterinary programs and plant diagnostic training.

Purdue is also teaching U.S. National Guard troops to develop crop and livestock production programs and provide help in pest management and soils assessment.

Four Purdue staff members are on long-term assignments in the country.

On campus, the most visible effort is seen in the 12 instructors from Afghan agricultural faculties. They are studying agronomy, agricultural economics, food science and English.

Salari was an instructor at Kabul University. But wars -- from the nine-year Soviet-Afghan War starting in 1979 to the current U.S. war -- derailed the universities and left them without funds, proper facilities and qualified faculty.

McNamara said highly trained and regarded faculty fled the country around the time of the Soviet invasion. Others were forced out of their academic fields.

"The ravages of not having enough of a functioning government, having civil war and not being able to invest in anything" has depleted higher education so much that degrees are not credible, McNamara said. "And the critical thing to invest in is people, the teachers."

That is why Salari applied for the competitive Purdue program. When he returns to Afghanistan, he will be an assistant professor of agronomy focusing on wheat -- the main crop and dietary food in the country.

"This is the kind of investment that will last for a long time," he said.

Slow progress, uncertain times

Rick Foster, a Purdue extension entomologist involved in the program, says results will take time.

Last year Foster went to Kabul University as part of a Purdue assessment team. Attitudes of older, under-trained faculty made him question his involvement. Many lacked interest in furthering their knowledge.

"But then I met with the students and saw how excited they were to learn and elevate the university to the point where they could get a quality education and their desire to help their county -- that made me want to stay involved," he said

Last month Foster was back to the country teaching pest management theory and control techniques. He said training instructors and creating an extension system -- similar to Purdue's Extension service -- will help spread knowledge to educators and farmers throughout the country.

"The problems in Afghanistan are not subject to a quick fix," he said. "It is going to require a long-term commitment from the U.S., our allies, to make things better there. And it is going to be a multiprong approach."

Situation could change

While Purdue's involvement is apolitical, McNamara said, it could change based on the unstable political and security situation. Kabul is relatively safe, he said. Purdue also lends support to Kandahar University, in the southern region. But the staff does not travel there because of violence in the region.

Rising U.S. casualties have prompted the Obama administration to review its entire Afghanistan war strategy, including proposals to send in thousands more troops.

The unsettled presidential election is a causing political crisis for Afghans and the U.S.

"We could cease to be involved in Afghanistan at any time," Foster said. "If the president decided to pull out or if Congress doesn't want to appropriate the money or if USAID changes their priority -- our involvement could end."

Despite the uncertainty, Purdue remains dedicated to working with Kabul and the Kandahar, Herat, Balkh, and Nangarhar universities scattered across the country.

"In Afghanistan the first priority is security, and to me production of food is the second priority," Foster said. "And what we are doing with the college of agriculture is part of that process."