AL RASHID, Baghdad, Aug. 10 — As the 5th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, plan to improve agriculture in Al Rashid, members of the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment civil affairs team, presented farmers of Al Boetha with more than 68 tons of seed, fertilizer and other supplies at the Al Ahar School Aug. 4.

The seed delivery started July 6. The distribution is one of many to take over two weeks, just in time for the second planting season, said 1st Lt. Charles Cole of the 1st Cavalry Rear Operations Cell, who serves as agriculture officer for the 5th Brigade Combat Team.

The brigade will distribute approximately 2,200 tons of these supplies among 80,000 family farms in Al Rashid. The agriculture project, which also includes animal vaccinations that took place earlier this summer, cost $600,000.

Company A, 489th Civil Affairs Battalion, coordinated the supply distribution, Cole said, with the assistance of the 5th Brigade Combat Team line battalions.

“They both work hand in hand with the sheiks and neighborhood advisory councils to identify the power brokers for their areas. Once they have done that, they determine how many farmers there are and what they need in each area,” he said.

Supplies included certified seeds for wheat, corn and maize; urea and other fertilizers; and insecticides and herbicides. While seeds aren't always the hardest things to come by for farmers, the seed given by the agriculture team provides a wider gene pool for the plants.

“Most Iraqi farmers can grow their own seed, but they have been doing it so long that the germination is poor,” Cole said.

“This seed we're giving them is certified seed that introduces a wider gene pool and increases the farmer's yield. The larger their yield, the larger their income. The more crops a farmer can produce, the more jobs are created and food produced.”

The seed distribution is such a simple project, Cole said, but agriculture affects around 85 percent of Al Rashid's population, so the impact will be enormous. Cole also said that since the seed distribution, mortar fire on Camp Ferrin-Huggins has reduced drastically.

“The attacks that we receive here are usually mortars that are fired from fields owned by these farmers,” he said. “If you notice that since we started the distribution almost two weeks ago there hasn't been a mortar attack here.”

Much of the decrease also comes from talking with the farmers and land-owners during the distribution, said Staff Sgt. Barry Rinehart of the 1st Cavalry.

“In exchange for this seed we ask them to tell us if they know of any [anti-Iraqi] activities that are going on,” Rinehart said. “They agree to give this information for the seed, and we tell them that we expect it.”

“Our main objective is to save U.S. soldier's lives while helping the farmers to be self sufficient,” Cole said.

With the seed project nearly under their belts, the agriculture team has plans for future areas of improvement in Iraqi agriculture, Cole said.

“We conduct a farmers meeting every Sunday morning here. They bring us issues and problems that they are having.”

“The farmers have requested assistance with diseases in their vegetables, so our intent is to work with Texas A&M to have their produce disease specialist to assist us in October.”

With these improvements, the agriculture team and civil affairs hope to help out the people of Al Rashid starting at the lowest level possible.