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Roots of Peace of San Rafael receives $30.4 million grant
San Rafael-based Roots of Peace has received a $30.4 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to aid farmers in some of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces. The grant, which will be distributed over four years, is the largest agricultural development grant the federal government has given to a nongovernmental organization, officials said. The infusion, along with several other new sources of funding, increases the agency's annual budget from $11.8 million in 2010 to nearly $50 million over the life of the grant.  Heidi Kühn, founder and CEO of San Rafael-based Roots of Peace, The nonprofit organization, the largest agricultural nonprofit in Afghanistan, removes mines from war-torn areas and then turns abandoned mine fields into productive farms. Roots of Peace, which employs 300 people in Afghanistan, has operations in 20 of the 34 provinces in the nation. “This is a victory for Marin,” said Heidi Kühn, Roots of Peace founder and chief executive officer, who announced Thursday that the organization also will begin partnering with the United Nations Mine Action Service in place of the now-defunct group Adopt-A-Minefield. “We're very, very excited,” she said of the USAID grant. “It's amazing. I'm humbled. We're facing this war on terrorism from the bottom up, not the top down.” Through USAID's Commercial Horticulture and Agricultural Marketing Program, Roots of Peace will work with 26,000 rural farmers to double their income from below-subsistence levels, government officials said. The money will go toward expanding existing agricultural programs, which seek to replace cereal and poppy crops with high-value foods such as apples, grapes, pomegranates, cherries and almonds in 11 provinces, Kühn said. Farmers will contribute $4.5 million of their own funds to pay the costs of the new orchards and vineyards, government officials said. “This is big Taliban territory, but we're facing it with faith rather than fear,” Kühn said. “You have to have faith in what you're doing and the good people around you.” Jalalabad, once a citrus production area now decimated by war, neglect, drought and disease, will be rebuilt by the U.S. government agency. “Agriculture is an important part of the Afghan life and helping Afghan farmers is a top priority for both the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the United States government,” said William M. Frej, USAID mission director to Afghanistan. “We are pleased to be able to help (non-government groups) such as Roots of Peace promote agriculture in this country.”
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