Soybeans For Afghanistan: California group making inroads in enhancing nation's nutrition

Afghanistan is gaining a taste for soybeans – both as a milk substitute and a flour supplement – thanks to a small California-based group, Nutrition and Education International (NEI). In November, NEI announced the opening of the fourth soymilk processing plant in the country. The organization also has been working with local bakeries to incorporate soy flour into traditional breads.

NEI’s long-term goal is to encourage Afghan farmers to grow soybeans to give the country a degree of self sufficiency in terms of protein. Technical help has come from the University of Southern Illinois in the effort to introduce soybean production to the country’s farmers and put together agronomic recommendations.

“Afghanistan seems to be falling off the radar of media coverage and global interest,” admits Steven Kwon, who launched NEI as a vehicle for improving nutritional health in the country. “However, this does not mean that life has drastically improved. Malnutrition remains a real and serious problem, and its effects are most evident in the health of women and children. Afghanistan still has one of the world’s highest maternal mortality rates – 1 in 50. Infant mortality is 1 in 7. For children under 5 years old, the mortality rate 1 in 4. Obviously, the country still needs help.”

Malnutrition is synonymous with protein deficiency, says Kwon, a native of Korea who worked 22 years for Nestle as a nutrition researcher before retiring as its Principal Nutrition Researcher in the U.S.

Since soy is a high-protein, cost-effective crop, NEI developed a soy nutrition initiative for the country in 2003. Soybeans were never grown by farmers in Afghanistan on any large scale before NEI introduced the crop, and NEI had to test the crop’s adaptability to Afghan soil and climate conditions in 2004 and 2005. Seed for the program were donated by Stine Seed Company in Adel, Iowa.

Successful results led the Afghan government to adopt NEI’s soy industry development program as a national project. Between 2006 and 2008, approximately 5,000 Afghan farmers in 15 provinces grew and harvested soybeans for the first time.

Those initial crops provided raw beans that could be processed for the introduction of soy into the Afghan diet. NEI initially launched a soymilk feeding program during 2005 in Badakshan, which Kwon describes as the poorest province in the nation. It has the highest maternal mortality rate in the country, he noted.

A second facility opened in Herat province in 2006, in close-collaboration with the nation’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA), then the third soymilk plant opened in Kabul’s Darulaman area last April. The fourth and most recent soymilk facility also opened in the Kabul area in November.

A soy flour plant also has been opened in Kabul, and a pilot program began distributing the product to area bakeries for incorporation into traditional naen bread. The naen bread produced in the program carries 10% soy flour and 10% wheat flour.

This year, NEI plans to establish a Soy Nutrition R&D Center at Kabul Medical University. “The idea is to promote soy nutrition among the general public and equip Afghan youth to eradicate malnutrition among their women and children.,” Kwon says.

About 80% of NEI’s funding has come from private donations and religious organizations in the U.S., Canada and Korea, according to one of Kwon’s associates.

A donation link can be found on NEI’s web site.