USDA's Food for Progress program, the American Soybean Association's World Initiative for Soy in Human Health program and three partnering organizations will receive a cooperative agreement for work in Afghanistan in the amount of $26 million. That nation has some of the highest rates of malnutrition in the world. At the same time the agreement will allow Afghanistan to rebuild its market for soy.
WISHH Chairman and ASA Board member Scott Fritz, a soybean producer from Winamac, Ind., says diets will improve and soy consumption will increase as Afghan agriculture and the local economy develops and when this happens, everybody wins.
The agreement will provide 240 metric tons of defatted soy flour over the next three years to meet the nutritional needs of 5,000 women and their families. The agreement also includes 13,750 metric tons of soybean oil that will be monetized or sold into the local market in support of the project activities. The project will also bolster the processing end of the agricultural value chain, with the shipment of 6,000 metric tons of soybeans. These soybeans will be processed into soy flour and soybean oil for the local market.
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