| The Idaho-Baghdad connection: Two UI ag alums help rebuild Iraq agriculture
Photo above: Lee Schatz's van stands outside burned-out Baghdad Ministry of Agriculture in April 2003. For Schatz and Harbert, it was only their latest—if most challenging and, perhaps dangerous—in lengthy USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) careers, promoting U.S. agricultural products globally and sharing best agricultural practices with developing countries. Burned, looted, without communications or water, the Iraq Ministry of Agriculture Baghdad headquarters had to be brought back into working order, along with 300 regional ag offices in a country the size of California. Guiding
Principle: Get Iraqis back to work Photo above: Harbert with Iraq's Abu-Ghraib college aggies outside their dorm. Schatz said it was “good for me to watch them, one by one, realize they really were going to be decision makers.” He praised their talents and said he will want to “touch base with them the rest of my career, to see how they are doing in a new Iraq.” What Schatz
accomplished in 90 days
The magnitude of those efforts was “greatly complicated” by widespread looting of government facilities. However Schatz now believes the looting helped force modernization. “Had everything remained in place, there would have been a temptation to continue business as usual. But with resources so limited, coalition advisors and Iraqi leaders had to think through efficiencies for limited resources.” Harbert’s
turn…lots to do When the United Nations ended its Oil for Food Program Nov. 21, 2003, Harbert’s job included helping the coalition and volunteer countries distribute food to Iraqis and find new sources. That could even impact Idaho. Tim McGreevy, executive director of the USA Dry Pea and Lentel Council in Moscow, praises their work. “Lee and Lloyd know the pulse industry. They are assisting in rewriting contracts so we can compete in selling to Iraq,” says McGreevy. “We hope once Iraq is stabilized they will be able to import food from us again.” Iraq has a “long way to go to food self-sufficiency,” adds Harbert. His job is to help them get there. --Mary Ann Reese © 2003 University of Idaho, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. |
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Lee
Schatz ‘71, ’74, rolled into Baghdad April 24, 2003,
before the dust of coalition troops had settled, and two days later
he began assembling a new Iraq Ministry of Agriculture staff. By
late summer Schatz and another UI ag alum, Lloyd Harbert ‘75,
working with other U.S. and Australian agricultural leaders, had
accomplished a long list of tasks. Both are among the most pivotal
people assigned to help Iraq rebuild its agricultural strength and
catch up following 20 years of neglect.
“A
guiding principle for all reconstruction efforts was to get Iraqi
employees back to work and to convince them that they are now responsible
for making decisions regarding their futures,” says Schatz.
He found many able Iraqi leaders, often trained at U.S. universities,
“but after 30 years of top-down direction, they lacked the
confidence to do their jobs without explicit orders. They all knew
how the ministry should operate, but hadn’t been allowed to,
because theirs was a highly directed system.”
In
July Lloyd Harbert, Director of FAS’s U.S. Agricultural Trade
Office in Hong Kong, agreed to fill in as the new U.S. “man
in Baghdad.” Policy reform, fostering development of a private
sector, developing budgets for 2004, setting prices, and getting
seeds and fertilizers into looted warehouses became priorities.
He also worked to reestablish Iraq’s agricultural research
and extension system, restore plant and animal quarantine services,
and bolster reforestation efforts in the north.
