Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Mother leader moving materials The Haiti Nutrition Security Program (NSP) is working with local organization Makouti Agro Entrerprise to identify the best options for small scale livelihood enhancement activities. These activities will vary based on local demand and feasibility but could include gardens and animal production, small business training, post-harvest processing and other value-added operations.  Partnerships with local Haitian counterparts increase the sustainability of interventions and are also essential in ensuring that NSP activities and strategies most appropriately and effectively meet the specific needs of malnourished populations, since each region of the country is culturally and economically distinct. Working with NSP field staff, mother leaders, and women’s clubs, Makouti has begun developing home gardens in target program areas. Each garden is under the management of one mother leader or women’s club and serves as a demonstration garden for all...

For a change of scenery (from Africa) and a change of industry (from farming), I accepted a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment offered by Partners of the Americas. My assignment was from June 22 to July 11, 2014 and took place in the very pleasant town of Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic. This town sits in the central highlands, almost equidistant between the north and south coasts. My task was to work with an environmental organization, Plan Yaque, to guide the development of a strategic plan. This organization seeks to preserve and also repair the Yaque del Norte watershed, the largest in the Caribbean. Field officer, Mabel Barinas, visiting the Yaque del Norte watershed There are so many threats to the watershed that I am not sure where to begin. In the upper reaches, deforestation is taking a toll. Fewer trees result in increased erosion, dumping sediment into the rivers.  The sediment eventually overwhelms the dams further downstream and leads to flooding - - a big problem for ...

By Tom Hebert, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer A Jamaican couple’s dream of a more sustainable, natural and economical beekeeping using top bar hives has begun to fruit its benefits for themselves and many other beekeepers on their Caribbean island because of Farmer-to-Farmer. Kwao and Agape Adams had a vision of a more simple and natural way to keep bees in Jamaica upon their return to the island after living in Vermont for five years. Kwao had kept some beehives in the United States in the more common manner of movable-frame Langstroth hives, but they wanted something different for their farm--Yerba Buena Farm located near Robins Bay, St. Mary, on the island’s north coast. Agape and Kwao Adams, with their oldest son Emmanuel, inspecting a top bar hive on their north coast Jamaican farm. Their reading and research showed them top bar hives offered the alternative they were looking for—an alternative that could also b...

This article is a contribution to a week-long blog carnival on USAID's John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program . From July 14-18, F2F program partners and US volunteers are sharing their knowledge and experience of providing technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, service providers, and other agriculture sector institutions in developing and transitional countries. This blog carnival aims to capture and share this program experience. You can find all contributions on Agrilinks .  All week, Partners of the Americas has participated in the Agrilinks Blog Carnival highlighting the John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program. This has given us a chance to share stories from around the world and to hopefully show that F2F can have an impact. We shared a glimpse into the " day in the life " of a volunteer team in Nicaragua that gave you a better idea of what a volunteer assignment could be like. Maybe this s...

This article is a contribution to a week-long blog carnival on  USAID's John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program . From July 14-18, F2F program partners and American volunteers are sharing their knowledge and experience of providing technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, service providers, and other agriculture sector institutions in developing and transitional countries. This blog carnival aims to capture and share this program experience. You can find  all contributions on Agrilinks . What difference can a F2F volunteer assignment make? Can volunteers really have a long-term impact? The three stories below show they can. Farmer-to-Farmer matters! Dominican Republic: Women's Empowerment is the Key Historically, women in the province of San Jose de Ocoa in the Dominican Republic have not had many economic opportunities. With the construction of a small greenhouse, however, the seven women who are members of the Maria Trinida...

This article is a contribution to a week-long blog carnival on USAID's John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program . From July 14-18, F2F program partners and American volunteers are sharing their knowledge and experience of providing technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, service providers, and other agriculture sector institutions in developing and transitional countries. This blog carnival aims to capture and share this program experience. You can find all contributions on Agrilinks .   In the town of Grand Boulage in the mountains of Haiti, Madame Andremene Solomon is the primary caregiver for her entire family. Her husband has a physical disability, and she earns the bulk of the income that supports their family of six. A few years ago, food security was a faraway goal for Andremene. She struggled to feed her family and could not afford to send her children to school. She is one of thousands of Haitians faced with food insecurity....