Paul & Marguerite Craig: sowing seeds of growth: rebuilding after war—and rebuilding relationships—are keys to sustainable development says agriculturalist Paul Craig. He talks to Michael Smith

For A Change, June-July, 2004 by Michael Smith

The ink was hardly dry on the Dayton peace treaty that brought the Bosnian war to an end when agriculturalist Paul Craig made his first visit to the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, in 1995. 'Seventy per cent of Bosnia's livestock had been killed, eaten or stolen during the war,' leaving small farmers destitute, he says.

Craig was among the first international agricultural experts into Bosnia after the war. Agrisystems, the small British agricultural development company where he works, had been asked to advise the international Fund for Agricultural Development on how to spend $6 million in Bosnia.

'I came in over Mount Egmont and was escorted at night by a convoy of French troops across the airport, which was closed, into Sarajevo in the snow. There was no electricity and only three other guests in the Hilton Hotel. We had to use the inner staircase. If you used the outer one you were in danger of being shot by snipers sitting up in the mountains, even though there was a cease-fire.'

Agrisystems trucked in some 3,000 in-calf heifers from Austria and Germany and Craig went in with one of the first distributions. 'We unloaded the cattle on a tennis court where the farmers collected them. They really had nothing. At least they would now have milk for their children, possibly a surplus to sell, or cheese to make, and in time they would get a calf.'

IDYLL

Craig and his wife, Marguerite, tell me this story in their home in Hertfordshire, north of London, which has a delightful view over rolling English farmland. It is an idyll remote from the war-torn trouble spots where together they have been involved in agricultural development and post-war reconstruction for over 30 years.

When we meet, they are packing up to leave for the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific. It is a wrench for Marguerite, having put down local roots after years of travel. 'It's harder to leave this time,' she says. 'Before, when we went to Zambia, Nigeria and Papua New Guinea, our children were with us and our parents were younger.'

The European Union has awarded Agrisystems a three-year contract in the Solomons as part of a massive 80 million euro aid package. The islands have been plagued by ethnic violence and a breakdown in law and order, following a coup in 2000 which forced the government to call in Australia and New Zealand to restore law and order and recapture control of the government's finances.

These objectives have been achieved and Agrisystems is now tackling rural development, education and inter-island transport, which has largely collapsed, Craig says. 'We are setting up a trust fund of 25 million euros to manage and provide shipping, aviation and road development.' Meanwhile, Marguerite hopes to put her experience as a primary school teacher to use. The islands' 800 or so primary schools have had no new teaching materials for three years. The aid scheme will fund text books for every child and provide training for some 1,100 teachers.

Paul Craig graduated in Agriculture from Edinburgh University in 1970. A formative, if unlikely, influence came from a travelling theatre group from India, brought to Edinburgh by a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. One of their stories was of three Indian farmers who had increased their village crop yields after settling personal jealousies and finding reconciliation. 'In the following vacation I went to India and met the reconciled brothers. A divided and starving village had been transformed. They had adopted new seeds and technology and now had a surplus. That taught me a fundamental lesson--that people's attitudes and relationships are as important as any technology when seeking to improve a situation. It also led me into international development.'

The story of Craig's own rapprochement with his father, a Glasgow businessman, is captured in a re-enacted documentary video, What are you living for? A frank conversation 'lifted an iron curtain' between them and restored their friendship.

APOLOGY

Craig gained his Masters at the University College of North Wales and spent a year in Saudi Arabia doing agricultural research, sent there by the UK's then Overseas Development Administration. This led him to Zambia as an animal husbandry officer, a job which tested his conviction about relationships. In front of a senior official, he blamed a local livestock specialist, Mtonga, for a faulty roof. 'I immediately knew I was wrong to humiliate Mtonga in front of our boss. But it took me three days to sum up the courage to apologize to him.' Craig says his apology helped to build the trust between them. When Craig's contract ended in 1979, the Zambian graduate who took over his post told him: 'We have grown together technically but we have also grown together spiritually.'

Human relationships were again the key in Papua New Guinea where Craig was seconded by Booker Tate Ltd in 1990 to get a loss-making poultry and crocodile farm back into profit. The farm, which employed 400 people, had a million chickens and 5,000 crocodiles. Bad management had led to the receiver being called in. Relations between the management and the farm workers' union were 'diabolical'.