FORT GORDON — Loved ones said their good-byes to members of a Georgia-based National Guard unit preparing to help civilians in southeastern Afghanistan how to better grow and market their food.

The Augusta Chronicle reports that the 201st Agribusiness Development Team held a send-off ceremony Monday at Fort Gordon near Augusta. The unit will soon depart for Camp Atterbury in Indiana before deploying to Afghanistan in late May.

National Guard Maj. Greg Worden says that after two generations of war, some of the infrastructure for agriculture in Afghanistan has been destroyed and farmers there have to learn to rebuild.