Can crocuses displace poppies?
Saffron brings big bucks in the developed world. In addition to boosting farm income, the ADT also hopes it will replace another high-profit crop: the opium poppies that help finance the Taliban. But the soldiers admit that if not administered well, the saffron profits could also be channeled to fund the insurgency. Still, though saffron and other ADT projects have their share of challenges, the village elder says the Kansas farmer-soldiers are having a positive impact. They’ve done a lot of work here, he says. They made a greenhouse, a women’s affairs garden and the demo farm here. VOA – D. WissingSgt. Jo Lisa Ashley tends to the bees of Bagram in Afghanistan. Sweetening the pot Another weapon in the ADT arsenal is honey. The Kentucky National Guard ADT is a hand-picked team of five dozen soldier-farmers includes men and women with agricultural and scientific backgrounds. Sgt. Jo Lisa Ashley, the ADT’s beekeeper, says her team distributed 200 hives to dozens of farmers in Parwan and K
