Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

This week, we'd like to highlight the meaningful work our horticulture volunteers have been carrying out in the field. The following photo "spotlights" feature April and May 2013 volunteers who traveled to Belize, Guyana, Nicaragua and the Dominican Republic to work on horticulture assignments. BELIZE: Dr. Paul McLeod Dr. Paul McLeod of Fayetteville, Arkansas, was in southern Belize from March 16 - April 27, where he was hosted by the Belize Agricultural Health Authority (BAHA) and the National 4-H Center. Dr. McLeod provided training in soil fertility, vegetable production, and pest management to residents of 8 villages, spoke with students from 6 technical high schools about agricultural production and the benefits of backyard gardening, and provided training to the 4-H Center staff on best practices in educating youth about vegetable production and nutrition. Dr. McLeod poses with students from the local 4-H program GUYANA: Dr. Juliet Niehaus Dr. Juliet ...

As an experienced specialist in crop production and farming systems for sustainable agriculture, Jean Tsafack-Djiague joined the Farmer to Farmer program as a volunteer in Haiti, helping local communities of coffee producers. By creating short and long term goals to overcome the challenges of coffee production, Jean drew on his past experiences. For over a decade he has empowered farmers to produce high quality market adapted products, in line with sustainable agricultural development. Having developed and implemented 38 integrated projects, Jean supports rural organizations by combining his knowledge of sustainable management of natural resources and organic production for foreign markets. Jean (in khaki hat) discusses coffee production with farmers in Haiti The son of a coffee producer, Jean has 7 hectares of land in Cameroon, which he uses for growing organic coffee. Faced with terrible coffee quality in the country, Jean worked with various people...

Rutgers University's Office of Communications recently published an article about Farmer to Farmer volunteer Robin Brumfield. A specialist in farm management, with 35 years of experience in greenhouse production and management, Brumfield is an educator of small farmers as well as professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. "Rutgers Professor Returns to South America to Train Small-Scale Shadehouse Farmers" explains how Brumfield's work in Guyana was focused on hydroponics and shadehouse vegetable production, also with emphasis on product marketing. “What stood out for me was the sacrifice that so many of the small farmers had to make to produce their crops and get them to the market, especially those in the remote areas,” said Brumfield. “Their interest in learning all they can to make their small-scale operation profitable was well worth my trip and I was grateful to the Farmer to Farmer program for allowing me to share my expertise.”...

Carol Miles and Patti Kreider recently completed a vegetable grafting assignment in Nicaragua.  Carol Miles is a vegetable horticulture professor at Washington State University's Northwest Washington Research & Extension Center. Carol and Patti provided technical training to small-scale growers and agricultural trainers on the basics of grafting tomato, pepper and watermelon with the goal being to overcome vegetable production constraints, such as soil borne diseases and increase vegetable yield and quality. Patti Kreider and Carol Miles with the Asociacion Trabajadores del Campo in Mayas, Nicaragua The team provided written materials, lectures, discussions, hands-on training and supplies for tomato and pepper splice and cleft grafting at 7 locations to a total of 88 trainees, along with trainings for cucurbit (i.e. watermelons, cucumbers) grafting at 2 locations.  The printed materials used by Dr. Miles for the trainings on vegetable grafting were translated by the ...