Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Farmer to Farmer volunteer Ed Levi, a beekeeping specialist from Arkansas, is currently in Haiti conducting trainings in queen bee breeding. This is the first training on this important topic under the Farmer to Farmer Program, and likely the first strategic training on this topic in the country. Ed is collaborating with Haiti's Makouti Agro Enterprise as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and other beekeeping associations. Selective breeding of Haitian queen bees holds the potential to improve the overall genetics of the honeybees in Haiti, and selecting for desirable traits will lead to increased productivity and income for beekeepers. Below are some pictures from Haiti. Mr. Levi conducts a training on development of young bees Nicodeme Pierre, one of Haiti's most accomplished beekeepers, conducts his first grafting of queen cells (North Haiti) Mr. Levi working in the hives, together with Haitian beekeepers, in the Port au Prince Area

UWEX Agents working with Nicaraguan farmers on silage bags that will used during the dry season  University of Wisconsin Extension (UWEX) Agriculture Agents, Otto Wiegand and Vance Haugen and John Cockrell, retired UWEX Ag Agent, volunteered to work as a team in Nicaragua from November 27 to December 11, 2011 on a dairy project for Partners of the Americas' Farmer to Farmer (FtF) program. Wiegand focused on farm financials and forages, Haugen on silage-making and biogas production, and Cockrell on mineral supplementation and also on silage-making. On their farm visits, the team also covered farm and pasture management. The team worked with staff and producers of the San Francisco de Asis and Masiguito Cooperatives in Camoapa, the Lacteos Cooperative in Rivas, and visited farmer members of cooperatives based in Boaco and San Jose de los Remates. Vance Haugen and John Cockrell had previously volunteered in Nicaragua with Partners of the America's Farmer to Farmer p

Correll and McLeod work with a local vegetable producer in her garden Last month, Doctors Paul McLeod and Jim Correll of the University of Arkansas teamed up with support staff from the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) to expand and improve vegetable production in the lowlands of eastern Bolivia. This trip was a follow-up assignment for McLeod and Correll, who visited rural towns in Magdalena, Santa Cruz and Beni in 2010 to provide vegetable seed to interested potential producers. During this follow-up, the volunteers visited individual households in the same rural towns to check for progress in vegetable growth, provide additional seed and tools, and offer instruction on insect and disease identification and management. McLeod and Correll also identified seed sources in Santa Cruz and developed a method for sending seed into the more remote eastern lowlands. A family of producers receives vegetable seed McLeod and Correll reported general progress in

Levine sells his produce at the Farmers Market Photographed above is Levine, a young farmer from St. Kitts who benefited from some FTF trainings in collaboration with the local Community Achievers Project (CAP). Due to his involvement with CAP, he has beaten the odds that many young people face on the island and has recently graduated from high school, as well as beginning to sell his produce at the local farmers market every Saturday. Congratulations to Levine for his success! CAP manages youth development projects in St. Kitts and Nevis. Partners of the Americas' Farmer to Farmer Program continues to collaborate with the CAP to help young people develop productive, income-generating opportunities through agriculture.