Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Partners is always looking to expand the reach of the Farmer-to-Farmer program and assist new organizations. In 2014, our F2F field staff met with Plan Yaque, a non-governmental organization with the mission to  Clean, protect, and sustain the Rio Yaque del Norte watershed for the benefit of its people. Plan Yaque  was established in 2011 and is located in the municipality of Jarabacoa. Plan Yaque has a lofty goal:  to guarantee access to water for all individuals who depend on the Yaque del Norte watershed . Not only does t he Yaque del Norte watershed provide drinking water to more than two million people, but it also irrigates the most productive banana, rice, and horticultural production areas in the country.   However, a s the DR continues to face the effects of climate change, it will become more challenging to meet the water demand of the growing population, which will jeopardize the country’s ability to sustain economic growth. In March 2014, Senior Prog...

Recently, the Nutrition Security Program (NSP) teamed up with the Departmental Directors of the Ministry of Health (MSPP) to hold graduations for 450 Mother Leaders in the North and Northeast Departments in Haiti. These women completed over a year of training in nutrition and health education in the North and the Northeast regions of Haiti. NSP is funded by USAID/Haiti and is in its second year of operation. The 2015 graduations are an exciting milestone for the project! The graduation ceremonies marked the completion of a 15-month "learning by doing" training program. The participating women were trained in how to teach things like the importance of a balanced diet, breastfeeding best practices, and various livelihood activities. They were also taught how to use nutrition counseling cards as visuals to better communicate with their neighbors and other mothers in their communities. Each Mother Leader is responsible for visiting 10 to 12 households twice a month to ha...

The Honorable Tom Vilsack, US Secretary of  Agriculture,  discusses "Investing in Smart,  Collaborative Science  to Address 21st Century Challenges" On April 16th, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs hosted the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security in Washington, DC. Partners' Agriculture and Food Security Senior Director, Peggy Carlson, had the opportunity to attend and hear speakers and panels that included everyone from Allison Aubrey, Food & Health Correspondent at NPR News; to Shawn Baker, Director, Nutrition, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; and the Honorable Dan Coats, Member, US Senate (R-IN). Panel topics included: How the Private Sector is Moving the Needle on Health, Universities at the Foundation of the Fight Against Hunger, and A Health Sensitive Food Supply Douglas Bereuter co-chaired the event. He currently is involved in the Global Agricultural Development Initiative at The Chicago Council and is a Former Mem...

On March 22nd, Steve Oberle, owner of Hidden View Farm in Wisconsin, and Arlen Albrecht, a retired professor from the University of Wisconsin-Extenstion (UWEX), traveled to Guatemala to volunteer their time and expertise through Partners' Farmer-to-Farmer program. The main objective of their assignments were to teach organic, small scale/urban gardening techniques to urban and semi-urban women’s groups and family groups. Through three NGOs (Creative Works, International, A Couple of Christians Foundation, and the Association Libres y Triunfadores), Steve and Arlen trained 115 women and 46 men in 10 group sessions. They incorporated the use of Community Asset Mapping (CAM) to identify local resources to make compost and small-scale gardens, as well as assisted the NGOs in identifying potential future markets for the sale of surplus production or compost. Below are excerpts from their trip reports: Arlen and Steve's Volunteer Assignment The urban setting of Guatemala City ...

By F2F Volunteer Eric Rama Nicaragua’s economy is heavily dependent on agricultural exports. Of these exports, beef and dairy generate the most income. Despite this, Nicaraguan beef and dairy productivity levels are significantly lower than their Latin American counterparts. There are many reasons for this, but one worth highlighting is the dual-purpose nature of livestock raising in Nicaragua. Dual-purpose production systems are characterized by selling a portion of the milk a cow produces and leaving the remaining milk for their offspring. This creates a situation in which a cow produces very little milk compared to a normal dairy cow, and underdeveloped & under-performing calves which do not grow and thrive in the same way as calves from specialized systems. It goes back to the saying that you can do two things at the same time, but not well. However, producers in Nicaragua are willing to produce less in exchange for the daily income provided by the marketing of their milk. ...

Since February 2014, Partners has sponsored 29 Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers to travel to Nicaragua to train livestock farmers to achieve three primary goals. The first is to promote the nutritional value and stimulate demand for Nicaraguan beef and milk through branding and country marketing. The second is to develop a market for 100% natural dairy products that are produced and processed under certified quality standards, with competitive traits for niche markets. The third is to add value to Nicaraguan beef and milk by producing on natural pastures and certifying farms for adoption of best practices for hygienic, safe, and environmentally-friendly products. DAIRY EDUCATION CAMPAIGN   To support the dairy sector in launching a dairy education campaign, F2F volunteer Katherine Wingert supported the National Dairy Chamber in leading focus groups with children and mothers to gain a better understanding of why the general population consumes little dairy. Some of the result...

April 7th is World Health Day and this year, the World Health Organization highlights the challenges and opportunities associated with food safety. In Haiti, where Partners of the Americas has their own Nutrition Security Program (NSP), agriculture has been the mainstay of the economy since the 1980s. Food security is all encompassing, and includes not just food safety but also food supply, quality of that food, and the access all individuals have to it.  In honor of World Health Day, NSP has elected to highlight one of our many Mother Cooking demonstration focused on nutrient consumption and food safety Leaders. Candidates for Mother Leaders are women who are pregnant and/or have children five years or younger that have been chosen by their community to undergo a year-long training. The 24 trainings focus on the value of both quantity and quality of the food being prepared in households. The trainings also encompass a number of other things including Vitamin A, breastfeed...

Partner’s AFS team wants to wish you a happy spring!  To celebrate this sunny new season, we want to show some "Easter" bunnies from Haiti! Here are some highlights from F2F’s Small Animal program, featuring these cute furry fluffs! In a recent survey completed by Partners, 74% of rabbit producers assisted by Makouti Agro Enterprise and the Farmer-to-Farmer Program report they can now afford the fees to send all of their children to school with money made from rabbit sales. Imagine the broader difference that can be made in Haiti when more families are managing small agro-enterprises, putting healthier food on the table, and sending all their children to school! What does it mean to a small-scale rabbit producer in Haiti? Consider the story of Paul, from a mountain town in Haiti near the Dominican Republic border, who has 6 people in his family. On his small plot of land he grew coffee and beans, and when he started with F2F, he reported making 20,000 Haitian Gourdes (U...

In March, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Rebecca Roebber traveled to Panama to support La Asociacion de Profesionales y Tecnicos Ng ä be -Buglé de Bocas de Toro (APROTENG) by providing a two-week training to a group of women in marketing and the production of cocoa by-products.  The local women are participants of Partners of the Americas' EducaFuturo program which focuses on reducing child labor in the region. In a joint effort to improve the livelihoods of families and reduce child labor, EducaFuturo and Farmer-to-Farmer are working together to build the local capacity of community members in Changuinola, Panama. Below Rebecca gives us a glimpse of the local context and describes her experience: By Rebecca Roebber A peak at the inside of the cacao bean. Cacao is grown locally in the province of Bocas del Toro, Panama and has historically been sold to first world countries who produce and chocolate.  This has made it very difficult for cacao farmers to make a living. ...