The Marjah Accelerated Agricultural Transition (MAAT) was a project of the

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

government and the

United States Marine Corps The United States Marine Corps (USMC), also referred to as the United States Marines, is the maritime land force service branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for conducting expeditionary and amphibious operations through combi ...

Marjah, Afghanistan Marjah (also spelled Marjeh; Pashto/ fa, ) is an agricultural town in southern Afghanistan. It has been reported to have a population between 80,000 and 125,000, but some sources argue that its population is much smaller and is spread across 80 t ...

to transition crop farmers from growing

opium poppies Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

to growing licit crops over the 2010

growing season A season is a division of the year marked by changes in weather, ecology, and the amount of daylight. The growing season is that portion of the year in which local conditions (i.e. rainfall, temperature, daylight) permit normal plant growth. Whil ...

. By ceasing to grow opium, one of the

Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...

's main sources of income, US forces hope that the Taliban will have less money to utilize for combat. Farmers who wished to participate signed up with the

NGO A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...

s, which provide them with seeds and fertilizer to get started in MAAT. Farmers choosing to register with the MAAT program, were required to register their location, croppable land area and proposed crops. Farmer's lands were then checked to ensure that they had killed off their poppies and transitioned to new crops. Those who did change to growing non-opium crops will receive a payment of 3,000 Afghanis and a set of new tools, including a water pump.

References

United States Marine Corps projects Agriculture in Afghanistan {{Agri-stub