Introduction

This web page and the attached PowerPoint presentation summarize a former student's experiences in Afghanistan. The PowerPoint presentation was prepared by Randall Frescoln as part of the oral defense of his creative component for his Masters degree in Professional Agriculture at Iowa State University. The materials provide a very interesting application of the diffusion of innovations approach to facilitating social change.

Introduction

This introduction is paraphrased from a USDA news release written by Darin Leach, Public Information Coordinator.
    Randy Frescoln, Iowa's U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development business and cooperative program director, was selected in August, 2004 to serve a six-month mission in Afghanistan to help that area increase agricultural growth and rural incomes. During his assignment Frescoln served as a senior agricultural technical advisor on a military provincial reconstruction team. He departed for Afghanistan on August 1 and was assigned as one of only a few civilians to a base under NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) command.

    Randy had more than 20 years of successful domestic development experience with USDA Rural Development and previous international development experience. He was one of only 10 USDA employees nationwide selected to participate in the Department of Agriculture's contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom to help reconstruct Afghanistan.

    The purpose of the provincial reconstruction teams is to provide a secure and stable environment in rural provinces from which development and reconstruction activities can take place. The USDA staff member assigned to each provincial team is responsible for addressing agricultural reconstruction issues within the assigned area.

Afghanistan

Fulfilling his mission for the USDA was much more difficult than Frescoln could have ever imagined it would be.
  • No one in the military or in non-government supported development teams knew that Frescoln would be arriving in Kunduz, a small village in northern Afghanistan.
  • Frescoln had no financial resources to distribute to aid projects.
  • Frescoln did not speak the language and therefore was dependent upon others to help him communicate.
  • The people of the area had very little to no formal education.
  • The people had been subjected to terrible abuse by warlords and conquering armies. Frescoln told one story about 5,000 children in a village being taken and buried alive outside their village.
  • The Islamic culture of the area provided no support for social change.
  • Frescoln, like all Americans, was a target. The Taliban offered a $5,000 reward to any person who would kill an American.
  • Most all of the infrastructure of Afghanistan had been destroyed. In the late 1970's and early 1980's, the communists destroyed the agricultural infrastructure of those who did not subscribe to their beliefs. Later, when the Taliban came into power in the 1990's, they destroyed the agricultural infrastructure of all persons who supported the communists.
Frescoln described his two options:
  1. Cry.
  2. Learn to help others, quickly!
As he thought about his options and reviewed what he had learned in the Masters in Professional Agriculture program, Frescoln happened to look outside his office window to see a radio tower. He thought, "I'm living inside the diffusion game!" From that beginning, he developed what he called "Seven Wisdoms" that he learned from the Masters program. He applied these wisdoms to his work and achieved remarkable success within a short time period.

Frescoln's experience represents just one of many thousands of applications of the diffusion of innovations approach for gaining adoption of many different types of innovations in settings worldwide. The approach works. It serves as the foundation for all voluntary social change programs.

This PowerPoint Presentation summarizes his experiences, plans, and conclusions about the Masters in Professional Agriculture Program.

Update

Randall Frescoln has been appointed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be its first Provincial Reconstruction Team advisor in Iraq (read more). He left for Iraq on November 26, 2006.

Frescoln returns to Iowa. Read about his experiences in Iraq: Hostility Greets Patriotic Gesture

Return to The Diffusion Game.