Forestry Alum Reflects on Lifetime of Agricultural Development Work Overseas

George Melton ‘76 has lived quite the life working overseas, using his education in forestry and soil science to help promote agricultural development in war-torn communities throughout the Middle East, Central Asia and South Caucasus.

Recently, for example, Melton served as an agribusiness advisor for the Agricultural Support to Azerbaijan Project. The $8.5 million project, which operated from 2014 to 2018, aimed to increase the incomes of the country’s agribusinesses and agricultural producers.

Melton’s international experience extends beyond agricultural development. During his time overseas, he also served with various American and international military groups in Afghanistan and other countries to help implement counter insurgency programs.

As a student in the College of Natural Resources, Melton, who always loved the outdoors, was heavily involved in extracurricular activities. He not only served as president of the Forestry Club and vice president of the Forestry Council, but he was also a member of the NC State chapter of Xi Sigma Pi, the national honor society for forestry and related sciences.

One of his favorite memories while at NC State was his time spent in the Forestry Club. “The Forestry Club at that time was the second richest student organization on campus next to the student government,” Melton said. 

Melton and his classmates raised money for the club by conducting tree care and maintenance on the weekends. “We would have a tree that needed to be trimmed or more likely just taken down and a few of us would do the arborist work and bring it down. That was always fascinating.” 

“Choosing to major in forestry at NC State was one of the best decisions that I have made.”

The college, which was then called the NC State School of Forestry, taught him a lot that would prove very useful during his decades-long career. He said that professors really instilled in him the values of working hard, not giving up and developing good relationships with others. 

“Choosing to major in forestry at NC State was one of the best decisions that I have made,” Melton said. “We must never stop learning and we must always exceed the expectations of those that we serve. My professors first taught me that and the workplace reinforced it.”

He added, “I came out of forestry school knowing that I should do extracurricular things, whether it was speaking at meetings or joining the Rotary Club or just doing whatever I could out in the communities so that I could really get to know people and develop good strong professional relationships. I learned all of that from my forestry professors.”

Founded in 1929, the School of Forestry was originally established to aid North Carolina’s forestry industry. Initially, what is now known as the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, focused on training students to grow, harvest and sell timber, and sought new ways to protect the state’s forests against threats like fires and pests. 

As time went on, the school began to acquire tracts of forest land that it used to provide hands-on training to students and worked with the forestry industry to pursue new techniques in breeding, harvesting and land management.

“I completed two degrees, soil science and forestry, so that I could work for the Weyerhaeusers of the world and be able to evaluate the soils as well as the timber and advise on whether to buy just the timber or both the land and timber,” Melton said. 

Seeking a New Path

Melton worked in various positions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service from 1976 to 1985. During this time, he also earned a Master of Public Administration degree from the University of Kansas in 1983.

In 1985, with encouragement of a friend working in international agriculture at the time, Melton decided to try his hand in the industry. He spent five years with Rhone-Poulence Agrichemical Company as a sales representative before joining Abbott Laboratories where he sold and managed the sales of biological pesticides and plant growth regulators.

During his employment with Abbott Laboratories, Melton volunteered to travel to Iraq to serve as an agricultural advisor in the country’s war zones. While in Iraq from 2008 to 2010, Melton worked to improve relationships with villages in Babylon and Mosul.

Melton, who was accompanied by U.S. Army Rangers during his travels, spoke with community members about their agricultural needs and then used their feedback to procure the necessary equipment and infrastructure to increase crop yields.

One of the agricultural commodities that Melton helped produce overseas was honey, which Iraqi communities use to treat allergies and other ailments. He also helped grow olives — a staple crop that serves as a source of livelihood for local farmers.

“I put in two olive presses and one brining operation, so you could just grind the olives in the salt water and save them. Then, I got a little lot of greenhouses because in the wintertime in that desert, it’s too cold to really grow what vegetables they needed,” Melton said. 

Embracing the Mission

After three years in Iraq, Melton traveled to northern Afghanistan as an agricultural advisor with the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service to provide technical assistance to farmers. He also managed the Sheep to Shop project. 

The Sheep to Shop project was launched by the U.S. Department of Commerce to help local Afghan communities increase their exports of rugs and carpets. Melton helped build a processing facility for wool and a nursery to assist women employed at the facility. 

“We were at the opening of the nursery and I’ll never forget this woman lifted her chador, stared me straight in the eye and said through my interpreter, ‘Thank you for putting the nursery in. Now, I don’t have to give my children opium to put them to sleep so I can work.’ That’s what they have to do to survive. If you can help women in these countries, you help a whole family,” Melton said.

In Afghanistan, agriculture is the main livelihood for approximately 75% of the population. The growth of the agriculture sector is crucial for food security and is a major contributor to the country’s economic well-being. 

During his time in Afghanistan, Melton learned that a lot of women in the country don’t get nearly enough protein. “Their bones are really brittle and they don’t get enough calcium either, honestly, because they don’t get the milk. So, they’ve got a pretty rough life.”

One of Melton’s most memorable experiences overseas involved his work with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture, a nonprofit organization. He helped install cold storage units and drip irritation systems to assist with pomegranate orchards in Azerbaijan.

Melton, in partnership with researchers from Texas A&M University, also assisted in increasing the country’s cotton yields, conducting value chain analysis to assess which aspect of the production required additional funding.

Now retired from his work as an agricultural advisor, Melton lives in Austin, Texas, and manages Lone Oak Ranch and Retreat with his wife, Lenoir. He is currently working on a book about his time spent overseas. In his spare time, he enjoys reading history books and fishing.