MOUNT AIRY — John Church grew up around farming and, although he has forged a career in the logging business, still keeps crops and raises chickens on his rural Habersham County land.

He hopes to use his vast knowledge to help advance farming and agribusiness in war-torn Afghanistan as part of a Georgia Army National Guard deployment starting in mid-May.

"If my only way to feed my family was to go fight somebody, then I would go fight," Church said. "If I could make a good living farming, then I would go farm."

Church is part of the Savannah-based 878th Engineer Battalion, which is preparing to deploy to the country to show Afghans how to modernize their agricultural ways, which are now comparable to American farming techniques of the early 1800s.

The plan is to get them closer to modern times, at least the late 1800s or early 1900s by American standards. A lack of electricity in rural areas is hindering efforts to modernize further.

The 878th will send agricultural development teams from its 201st and 265th regional support groups, with the 201st staying for a year. The 265th will relieve the 201st.

Church, part of the 201st, will begin three weeks of predeployment training and assessment Tuesday at Fort Stewart near Savannah. Then, he will head to Indiana for more training, which will involve Purdue University.

Since Feb. 14, the 201st's agricultural section, along with its security force, and a small group from the 265th have received instruction from University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

"Guardsmen are particularly well suited for this type of mission," said Col. Bill Williams, who commands the 201st. "Many of the soldiers ... have years of personal or professional agriculture experience."

The National Guard is "afforded a great opportunity to show the world that not only do we operate on the battlefield as combatants, but that we are also humanitarians seeking to help our fellow man make a better place for himself, his family, his community and his nation," Williams said.

Church's journey began many years ago, before he joined the military.

The Clarkesville native grew up in a farming family and is a fourth-generation timber worker.

"My family saw-milled and logged for years," he said.

"... My dad and I started logging when I got out of college. We started a small logging business and it grew and grew."

Church, who is married and has three children, ages 8-10, considered the military when he prepared to go to college.

"It was a good way to pay for college and see the world," he said.

He started ROTC at UGA, but then decided to go to Officer Candidate School so he could get a quicker commission. Church, 43 and now a combat engineer, has been in the National Guard for 19 years.

He's been deployed overseas twice, both to Iraq, where he was involved in construction missions.

Several states have taken on the agricultural mission in Afghanistan, with Georgia taking over for Nevada.

As focused as Church has been on agribusiness through his adult life, Afghanistan has set it aside, Church said.

In the late 1970s, the Soviet Union invaded the country and "destroyed the agriculture infrastructure."

"Young men had to fight the war," Church said. "For the last 30 to 35 years, the only thing they've known is war. So everybody my age has forgotten agriculture."

Today, about 80 percent of the country makes its living off agriculture, but so far, profits have eluded the Afghans.

"They feed their families - that's about all they can do," Church said.

Soldiers can do simple things, such as introducing better seeds and crops, as well as showing farmers new irrigation techniques.

Cool storage is key to helping get crops to market. Cold storage requires power and "we need to get their electrical grids up and going," Church said. "... Power is the key."

"Anything we do, we're going to work through government," he said. "We don't just want to go ... and start spending money in a village. We don't want to make the people dependent on the government but help them realize they can rely on the government.

"They've never been able to do that before."

One thing the soldiers don't plan on doing is summarily destroying opium poppy fields, which have proliferated across the country.

"But we will help them find crops that can replace that income," he said. "If we destroyed (opium) and that's how a man fed his family and his family starves to death, we're not making friends that way."