Afghanistan and Pakistan sent their agriculture ministers to visit family farmer Keith McKinney's cornfield in Colo, Iowa to observe and bring back beneficial information to better their country's agriculture system. Afghan Agriculture Minister Mohammad Asef Rahimi watched the American farmers with keen interest while thinking about how Afghanistan's crops could improve. Afghanistan is known for growing poppy and they are the world's biggest producer of opium. "So what we have to do for building the Afghan economy is to suggest that there are other cash crops that could be grown...and benefit the farmers to a greater extent than growing poppy." -U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack
Rahimi hopes he could help his country fight this notorius reputation by implementing the ideas he gained from Iowa. He is aware that most American farmers are educated and machine/tech-savvy so he would only apply the ideas that would benefit Afghan farmers. Vilsack hoped the agriculture ministers could see the many possibilities to better their agriculture economy and the success it could bring to the communities and families. Raising crops like the ones in Iowa means that the Afghan government would have to create a credit system, build storage facilities, and many other supports would be needed. To bring hope to Afghan and Pakistani's agriculture minister, Keith McKinney believes that change is very possible. McKinney thinks it wouldn't take a lot to improve crop yields and that in the end it comes down to "better seed, better cultural practices, the way you till your land and take care of it."
