Across Asia: Afghanistan

Farmers seek more help

Interrupted by the occasional whirring of military helicopters overhead, the US agriculture chief sipped pomegranate juice with Afghan farmers, who told him not enough international aid was getting through.

Wrapping up a three-day visit to Afghanistan yesterday, Tom Vilsack met the farmers - representing pomegranate and apple growers - at a fruit juice export plant in Kabul, part funded by the United States which has made agriculture the biggest non-security priority in the country.