UC Davis sends retired Nevada horticulture advisor to Afghanistan

Retired University of Nevada Cooperative Extension horticulture advisor Bob Morris is spending a year in Afghanistan to help establish an extension service in the war-torn country, said an article in the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Morris is participating in a program undertaken by a consortium of U.S. universities led by UC Davis. The program, funded with a $14 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, aims to help Afghanistan stabilize its agriculture-based economy.

"Thirty years of conflict have left Afghanistan's agriculture far behind much of the world and with little capacity to improve it," said Jim Hill, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. Hill is the associate dean of UC Davis international programs.

Agriculture employs more than 80 percent of Afghanistan's labor force and generates more than 40 percent of its economic output.

According to Morris' blog, xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com, he is on the job in Afghanistan but will still answer gardening questions from back home.