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| US to encourage green revolution |
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| WASHINGTON (NNI): US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Obama administration is reviving agricultural fortunes of Afghanistan, the war-battered country once considered as the garden of Central Asia.
Although it has become the largest producer of opium, Afghanistan has a long way to go in emerging self-sufficient in food production. But Clinton assured members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the Obama government was taking concrete steps in this regard under the new Af-Pak policy. “We are very committed to an agricultural programme. We have already begun to design it, in conjunction with the Afghanistan government, Clinton told lawmakers during a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
She said the United States would soon be deploying people into Afghanistan to work on everything from irrigation to fertilising to different kinds of hybrid seeds.
Agreeing with senators observations that for many years, Afghanistan was considered the garden of Central Asia because of the orchards, Clinton said: There are so many crops that if we can get the soil ready to produce again, because it’s been so eroded over the last 25-30 years, this could be an enormous benefit for people of Afghanistan.
The secretary added the emphasis of the Obama administration was on rebuilding the rural areas of Afghanistan where as many as 70 percent of the population lived. |
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