Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Partners of the Americas' Agriculture and Food Security team wishes you all a Happy Halloween! We tied for third in the office costume competition. As much of our communication with our field staff involves Skype, we decided to be our favorite Skype emoticons! Enjoy the photos!

Traditionally, Partners of the Americas' Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program in Nicaragua has provided technical assistance at lower levels of the value chain; primarily in inputs/supplies, on-farm production, and processing. However, F2F provides technical assistance along all parts of a value chain. This is clear in Katherine Wingert's assignment. This month, Ms. Wingert traveled to Nicaragua to work with the Nicaraguan Chamber of the Dairy Sector (CANISLAC), the Nicaraguan Chamber of Beef Industry Exports (CANICARNE), and t he National Cattleman’s Commission of Nicaragua (CONAGAN)  to develop a national nutrition education campaign to increase domestic dairy and meat consumption in the country.  Making cheese in Nicaragua Livestock production in Nicaragua represents the country’s most important economic activity, accounting for 10% of GDP and 27% of total exports. However, consumption of meat and dairy and knowledge of the nutritional value of thes...

F2F volunteer, Donna Bromfield (in the pink shirt), visits the Sukkot Farm in Exuma An abundance of agricultural produce can be found in the Bahamas, the majority of which goes to waste, as imported products continue to dominate the supermarket shelves. Therefore, the Bahamas Agricultural & Industrial Corporation (BAIC) identifies food processing as an area for development and a key for producers to sell locally and export internationally. The Bahamas also receives over 1.5 million tourists annually, which provides an ideal market to sell bottles of local jams, jelly, or sauces from small processors. However, there is currently no formal local or export protocol for these goods. Ms. Bromfield accompanies BAIC staff to visit the Garden of Eden Farm From June 15-28, 2014, food processing and food safety expert Donna Bromfield was the first Partners of the Americas’ Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer to travel to the Bahamas in 2014 on a flex assignment. During her assignment, Ms...

Partners Farmer-to-Farmer Program has been active since 1991 and we recently collected some of our impacts over the years into an info-graphic. Check out the image to see the broad reach of the program and read some of the stories on this blog to fill in the details of how F2F has made a difference throughout the hemisphere (and beyond).

I was fortunate to spend two extended periods of time (March–April 2014) and (May–June 2014) with F2F Nicaragua. During these visits I engaged in two roles. First, I piloted the role of a longer-term (instead of the normal two-week assignment) F2F volunteer Organizational Development (OD) Consultant. In this capacity, I provided OD support to the Nicaragua staff in the identification and orientation of new ‘hosts’ using two F2F assessment tools (the baseline from and the Organizational Development Index). My second role was as a joint F2F volunteer and doctoral student from the University of Hull , where I worked in partnership with the Universidad Nacional Agrari a (UNA) to introduce and culturally adapt a systems thinking methodology that asked people to reflect on their micro and small businesses and identify areas of improvement based on their reflections.   F2F Volunteer Ellen Lewis provides training on Feminist Systems Thinking. Organizational Development The relati...

Dr. Barakat Mahmoud recently returned from completing a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment in Guatemala where he worked with Royal Produce Company, one of the largest vegetables exporters in the country. The purpose of his assignment was to develop and implement an effective food safety plan to ensure compliance with the regulations and/or requirements of the United States. Dr. Mahmoud conducted two workshops: a) Good Agricultural Practices & Good Handling Practices (GAPs & GHPs) workshop with 17 farmers, packers, and managers and b) FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) workshop with seven managers and F2F field staff. Additionally, Dr. Mahmoud  conducted an audit of a green bean packinghouse, including an assessment of their cafeteria, water storage tanks, restrooms, hand-washing stations, instruments cleaning areas, chemical storage facilities/rooms, worker personal hygiene practices, processing areas, packaging materials, and transportation tracks. He then visited four...