Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Happy Holidays! During this season, we would like to take a moment to thank all of the dedicated volunteers, field staff, program collaborators, host organizations, funders and other supporters who have made our Farmer-to-Farmer Program a success. Thank you and best wishes for 2014!

Partners’ 2013-2018 Farmer-to-Farmer Program is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to provide hands-on training in various topics to individual farmers, farmer associations, agricultural cooperatives, education institutions and others in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Haiti and the Dominican Republic! We are currently recruiting individuals with significant experience in the following areas to travel to these countries for 2 to 3 weeks, with all assignment-related expenses paid for by the Program: • Sustainable Production Methods for Vegetables & Tree Fruits • Livestock Health & Nutrition (Cattle, Goats) • Carbon-Neutral Production • Beef Processing • Cheese Processing • Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Certification • Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Certification • Post-Harvest Handling • Product Development & Diversification • Packaging & Labeling • Marketing & Market Analysis • Traceability • Fair Trade • Business Planning & Management • Organiz

Farmer-to-Farmer does its part to improve production and promote vegetable consumption around the hemisphere. Here in the states, Partners volunteers are also helping the cause. Long-time Partners Chapter member Theresa Lou Bowick, from the Rochester, New York - Antigua Partners, combines her love of vegetables and fashion to have a little fun. In April 2003, Theresa Bowick first traveled to Antigua with Partners as part of a steel drum cultural exchange program. A skilled nurse, she quickly realized the need to develop and take part in health care programs on the island. Over the next few years she spearheaded projects in the areas of cancer treatment and services for people with different abilities. She also became involved with “Aim for Abilities”, a project designed to enhance the lives of individuals living with different abilities. In 2008, Theresa was awarded an honor by the President of the United States for her service during National Volunteer Week. Of this experience, T

Farmers bringing their products to market Farmer-to-Farmer’s horticulture projects in Haiti have sought to improve production yields and profitability for small- and medium-scale fruit and vegetable producers. Improved production has been achieved through fundamental activities like conservation, fertility, and pest management. Building on these accomplishments, farmers have then been able improve post-harvest handling, processing, packaging and labeling, and market linkages. Some challenges still remain, including transportation, but farmers are seeing impacts from the technical assistance they received. From 2008 to 2013, 29 horticulture volunteers engaged in assignments ranging from permaculture training and seedling management to pest control and small-scale organic farming. The program has seen some excellent results. For example, the formation of the Lory Producers Association, located in the small farming community of Lory in northern Haiti, was a result of F2F and Ma

Compost – decomposed organic material that is recycled as a soil supplement or fertilizer – is increasingly used in organic gardening and agriculture because of its economic and environmental benefits. Compost is created by combining organic wastes such as food scraps, yard trimmings and manure in proper ratios into piles or vessels and adding additional “ingredients” to facilitate the breakdown of the mixture. By manipulating the pile to produce high temperatures, pathogens and weed seeds are destroyed, and the mixture stabilizes to form mature compost; at this point, it can be added to soil to boost nutrient content and fuel plant growth. The benefits of creating compost, or “composting”, include: low cost; improves moisture and nutrient content of soil, promoting increased crop yield; replaces chemical fertilizers; diverts household/industrial wastes from the garbage can and, eventually, landfills. In Guyana,South America, individual vegetable producers, farms, agricultur

In Latin America and the Caribbean, although the average standard of living has increased in recent decades, income inequality remains widespread. Impoverished people, particularly in rural areas, still face many barriers to achieving food security, which is defined as having access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life. Food insecurity is particularly a concern for low-income countries where Partners works, such as Haiti and Nicaragua, which are ranked as the poorest and second poorest, respectively, in the Western Hemisphere. In Nicaragua, many families subsist on just a few dollars a day and consume disproportionate amounts of corn, beans, and rice, rather than fruits, vegetables, and other nutritious foods. Seeds are unaffordable or inaccessible due to transportation barriers and adequate knowledge, funds, and resources for seasonal fruit and vegetable preservation are limited. Many rural and food insecure families do not own canni

As the current Farmer to Farmer (F2F) program cycle comes to a close, F2F staff are taking a look back at the impacts volunteer visits have had on agriculture and food security in Latin America and the Caribbean over the past five years.   In Nicaragua, volunteer expertise has been concentrated in dairy and horticulture – two agricultural industries that make up a large portion of the country’s economy.   Two farmers from the dairy-producing region of Camoapa, Boaco who have worked with several F2F volunteers over the course of the program and, as a result, have shown impressive improvements in production and nutrition on their farms are Josefa Miranda and Edmundo Robleto. Josefa Miranda is a female dairy farmer who has been working with F2F since January of 2010.   Two of her main objectives when beginning her collaboration with F2F were to improve fodder used as livestock feed and increase milk production on her farm.   Several F2F volunteers worked one-on-one with Josefa and her

Claire (far right) with F2F field officer Mabel Barinas and producers Producers affiliated with the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in the Dominican Republic (DR) have shown impressive improvements in the past five years, according to a recent trip report by Claire Clugston, an experienced development practitioner in the DR.   Claire has been affiliated with the F2F program for over a year, initially as a graduate intern in the Washington, D.C. office and later as a volunteer with the University of Wisconsin helping with monitoring and evaluation efforts in the DR – the same country where she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) for three and a half years.   Because of Claire’s Spanish language skills and familiarity with development work in the DR, she was able to get a true grasp on how F2F’s approach there has contributed towards sustainable agricultural development. During Claire’s volunteer visit this past August, she made several important observations regarding the pos

Jim Crandall training new entrepreneurs. Small business development is a multi-dimensional and fluid process. In Haiti, programs like F2F and Makouti Agro-Enterprise support farmers in establishing a production system – an essential component to starting a business. By providing person-to-person, hands-on training, F2F and Makouti contribute to increasing producers’ chances of success. In addition to a healthy, efficient production system, a business needs a business plan to guide decisions about facilities, production, and marketing, with an eye towards profitability and long-term sustainability. This past June, F2F volunteer Jim Crandall applied his experience in cooperative business development to assist producer networks in Haiti. His focus was on enabling producers to make business decisions based on the network as a whole, not just on individuals. Jim spent his first week in the Port-au-Prince area working specifically with two rabbit producer associations. He led sessi

F2F volunteer Dr. Robert Paull of the University of Hawaii at Manoa Huila, 1 of Colombia’s 32 departments, is recognized nationally for its tropical fruit industry. Located in the country’s southwest region, Huila boasts 25 tropical fruit species spanning 10,699 hectares (26,438 acres), and is Colombia’s number 1 producer of passion fruit and pineapple. That said, Huila’s fruit industry is currently performing below the national average, considered to be the result of a lack of direct assistance and improved technologies at the producer level. To address this issue, Colombia’s National Learning Service (SENA) has linked up with Farmer to Farmer to facilitate collaboration among U.S. tropical fruit specialist, Dr. Robert Paull, SENA instructors, and Huila’s fruit producers. Dr. Paull, Chairman of the Department of Tropical Plant & Soil Science at the  University of Hawaii at Manoa, has been in Huila since September 8th to learn about tropical fruit productio

In November of last year, Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer Matthias Resien had taken a trip to Leticia, Colombia to provide training to staff at the Amazon World Ecological Park regarding dehydration techniques for making teas, packaging them, and developing marketing strategies. The park, which opened in 2011 and is known for its sustainable use of biodiversity, has many different species of aromatic plants that have large potential in the tea market, particularly for tourists visiting the park. Matthias’s visit was essential in getting the business started by helping to build a drying structure at the park and showing how to blend different herbs for aromatic teas that will be sold. Today, almost one year later, park staff are now selling tea to visitors and are in the process of expanding their market even more. They continue to make improvements to the drying house to adapt to local environmental conditions and create a stronger structure. In the future, they are looking into desi

Rabbits are a good source of nutrition and income for smallholder Haitian farmers Long-time Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Volunteer Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak recently returned from her fifteenth trip to Haiti in seven years. As a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from California, Myriam has had a unique volunteer experience in that she’s been able to follow the progression of the rabbit industry in Haiti, with rabbit meat becoming increasingly accepted on a larger scale as a viable source of nutrition and income for smallholder farmers. When Myriam first started volunteering with F2F in Haiti in 2006, there were fewer than 100 rabbit producers in the country, and only one of them was also eating the rabbits she raised. Today, with the help of F2F and Makouti Agro-Enterprise, this number has grown to over 1,000 producers with almost all raising rabbits for both personal consumption and sale. Boiling and mixing cassava to include in rabbit feed blocks Myriam’s most recent visit to Hait

 Farmer to Farmer volunteer Charles Ruffner with Dominican producers Last month, the community of El Cercado, San Juan in the Dominican Republic received a visit from Charles Ruffner, a Forestry Professor at Southern Illinois University. During his visit, Charles worked with the San Pedro and Pablo Federation, a nongovernmental organization of 21 farmer associations and 600 subsistence farm families that helps producers implement agroforestry practices on their farms. Agroforestry is a farming technique that involves planting fruit, nut, and woody trees on the farm with a variety of crops. Charles’s role during his week-long visit was to help farmers map and plan these planting schemes so they could not only lessen the environmental impacts of their farming practices but also improve their incomes.  Smoke in the mountains - a result of slash-and-burn agricultural techniques Agroforestry is being promoted as a farmer-friendly way to reduce the negative impacts of swi

Tom Hebert, Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, beekeeper and English teacher who resides in Intibucá, Honduras, spent the month of July working with beekeeping associations in 6 of Jamaica’s 14 parishes. This was Tom’s second visit to Jamaica – following his first Farmer to Farmer (F2F) assignment in July 2012 – and the 8th F2F assignment focused on low-cost, sustainable beekeeping in Jamaica in the last year. Tom’s 11 hands-on training sessions focused on building top-bar hives, hive management, and making home-made pollen traps and foundation molds – skills identified by the associations as areas where they needed to increase their capacity. Of the 72 recorded participants, 66.6% had attended a previous F2F beekeeping training, and just over 25% were present at Tom’s first session in 2012. Two summer interns at Yerba Buena Farm in St. Mary parrish accompanied Tom to his trainings and conducted a survey of the 72 participants to gain a better understanding of why they were intere

 Pond-side discussion of duckweed-based feeds at the Trafalgar Union Fish Farm  Former Associate Professor of Aquaculture at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, Dr. Peter Perschbacher, traveled to Guyana from May 30th - June 18th in response to a request for training by the University of Guyana - Turkeyen Department of Agriculture & Forestry. The University of Guyana - Turkeyen Campus, located in the capital city of Georgetown, asked Dr. Perschbacher to provide training in sustainable aquaculture to students and faculty, as well as interested farmers, government extension workers and entrepreneurs. The goal: to prepare a pool of aquaculture technicians and researchers, as well as to prepare a lecturer to succeed an outgoing aquaculture professor. The highly prized and priced hassar food fish  Dr. Perschbacher's nearly 3-week visit included a 2-day session attended by 33 participants, a 5-day session attended by 10 participants, and 4 days of field trips to e

Amelia Canilho and Jean Tice recently returned from a Farmer-to-Farmer   assignment in Nicaragua. Both Canilho and Tice are educators and residents of Wisconsin. The team complemented each others skills in teaching and assisting over 100 Nicaraguan youth and adults with tips on home gardening, square foot gardening, family nutrition, food preservation, new food product development, and value-added processing and marketing. They worked with five community learning centers near the cities of Managua and Rivas, and also attended portions of the EXPICA Agriculture Expo and the National Cattleman's Congress. Discussing a healthy snack program at local elementary school At each learning center the team got a tour of the farms and facilities. They then conducted a general needs assessment through a short questionnaire and discussion with leaders of the center and active members. Together with the groups they developed activities for the following day that addressed the center's

Sean (center) with family of new beekeeper (left) For two weeks in July, Washington DC resident and beekeeper Sean McKenzie volunteered in Haiti to put on the first ever Beginner Beekeeping Class conducted by the Farmer to Farmer Program. This course has been a long time in the making, satisfying the demand to bring new beekeepers - especially more women and youth - into the trade. With this training, those who formerly did not have access to this type of training received the information needed to embark on a new environmentally-friendly economic activity, and help revitalize the beekeeping industry in Haiti. Sean McKenzie is a beekeeper, queen breeder, entrepreneur, and beekeeping course instructor at the University of the District of Columbia. Below are photos sent from our field staff:

While they were visiting Washington, DC recently, several Farmer-to-Farmer Field Staff members and one of our volunteers were interviewed about their involvement in the program. Click on the video below to find out more!

The Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program is not just about improving economic growth and agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean - it is about connecting people and organizations to make a difference. As one producer in Guyana put it - "You have to meet with people if you want to change the world.” Hearing about F2F directly from field staff, volunteers, local partners, and hosts can be powerful. Below are some quotes from interviews and focus groups in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Guyana and Nicaragua. Economic impact... “Before [Makouti and F2F] started helping me, my level was very low. That is to say I couldn’t produce. I wasn’t making any money. Now, I am working for an organization that pays me [well], and I have a lot of bees now. I travel to the US because of my business in apiculture, my whole family gets job from that, I pay for schooling for kids, my everyday living is because of the grace of F2F and Makouti.“ -F2F Host, Haiti “I'll tell you an example, wi

The 2013 Farmer-to-Farmer Field Staff Workshop was a wonderful way to reflect on the past 5 years of the program's success. From July 9-12 Farmer-to-Farmer headquarter staff Peggy Carlson, Meghan Olivier, Marcela Trask, and Christine McCurdy hosted field staff from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Guyana in Washington, D.C. The University of Wisconsin-Extension (UWEX) team joined the headquarters staff and field officers to provide much needed assistance with monitoring and evaluation. As this cycle of the program comes to a close, field staff will be busily working to collect final qualitative and quantitative data. Program Officer Christine McCurdy exclaimed, "I give a lot of credit to UWEX for helping all of us better understand what information we need to collect for our final report and how it can be collected effectively, appropriately, and efficiently."  Pictured: Field staff from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Guyana, as well as Washington, D.C.