The University of California, Davis, and a Bay Area nonprofit organization won a federal contract to rebuild agriculture in areas of Afghanistan once dotted with land mines, the university announced this week.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is spending $10 million on the project, meant to restore grape and raisin vineyards in the war-torn country.

An estimated $870,000 of that will go to UC Davis for starting vineyard nurseries and developing marketing operations. Also, the project aims to create an Afghan version of the university's Cooperative Extension program, which applies research to farming problems.

"We ... are eager to be about the business of invigorating Afghanistan's once-robust horticultural industry and raising the incomes of Afghan farmers," Patrick Brown, an international programs official at Davis, said in a statement.

San Francisco-based Roots of Peace, founded to convert mine-covered lands to farms, leads the consortium. California wineries also support the project.