Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Adapted from training materials from F2F volunteer, Arlen Albrecht In poor urban communities near Guatemala City, families live in small houses on very limited plots of land. In more rural areas such as Chiquimulilla (southern Guatemala), families face high rates of malnutrition. Square-foot gardens are a useful way for families with limited space to grow fresh vegetables. Square-foot gardens can also be built using local materials and resources, and fresh vegetables can contribute to improving household nutrition and food security. In December 2015, F2F volunteer Arlen Albrecht traveled to Guatemala to train urban and rural community members in building square-foot gardens. Below are his notes on how to make a square-foot garden. Square-foot garden 7 Easy Steps to Build a Square-Foot Garden Location – Build the square-foot garden in close proximity to the house for easy access and maintenance. Choose a spot that gets at least 6-8 hours of sun each day and has ...

Ian Robinson recently returned from a F2F assignment in Panama working with another Partners’ project called EducaFuturo. Below he shares his experience:  “Located in eastern Panama along the country’s border with Colombia, the Darien region is known for being a difficult-to-access swath of jungle. The northern stretch of the Pan-American highway ends in the town of Yaviza, and reaching most of the surrounding indigenous communities requires a pick-up ride along dirt roads to nearest port and navigating the rivers in boats with an outboard motor. The challenges are the same if residents need to leave their community. Women participating in the workshop There are no formal banks in the indigenous communities, and the common strategies for residents if they need a quick influx of cash are to get a loan with usurious interest from a loan shark or to sell off some of their chickens. Furthermore, most community members would not be able to qualify for loans in traditional banks...

Soil degradation, often caused by a combination of physical, chemical, and biological factors, is a serious issue that the majority of farmers throughout the world face. Although degradation occurs globally, it is of particular concern in tropical regions due to numerous factors including topography, climate, and highly weathered soils. Furthermore, climate change is exacerbating the problem, with heavy rainfalls and extreme weather events such as storms and floods causing increased soil erosion. Many of Partners’ F2F volunteers work with smallholder farmers and farmer associations throughout LAC to minimize soil degradation in their cropping systems, frequently through the use of conservation agriculture. F2F volunteer Dr. Andrew Egan investigates soil erosion and its impact on the Dominican Republic's Yaque del Norte watershed in March 2015. Conservation agriculture is a set of three soil management principles that greatly reduces deterioration of a soil’s structure, compos...

This post has been adapted from a trip report written by F2F volunteer Tim Dahle, who worked with ANAPDE in Guatemala.  I spent the first two weeks of December in Guatemala on a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment for Partners of the Americas. The focus of this assignment is to improve nutrition practices for peach and apple production through ANAPDE (National Association of Producers of Deciduous Fruit), the host organization. We began the assignment by meeting with the directors and staff of ANAPDE at headquarters. We discussed the purposes of ANAPDE and some of the challenges growers face. The staff and growers were energetic, able and invested in improving the industry.  We set out next to visit as many growers as possible in the time allotted. I found growers to be already well versed in orchard sanitation, weed control and generally following nutrition guidelines that have been published by Clemson University. We set out to improve on the areas of the nutrition programs...

Pulses are eaten all over the world Since 1960, the United Nations has each year celebrated a different topic that deserves awareness or appreciation. 2015 was the International Year of Soils , and this year, the United Nations has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses ! By designating this year, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) aims to heighten public awareness of the nutritional benefits of pulses as part of sustainable food production aimed towards food security and nutrition. Pulses provide protein, complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals. Like other plant-based foods, pulses contain no cholesterol and little fat or sodium. Pulses are annual leguminous crops yielding grains or seeds within a pod, such as lentils, beans, peas, and chickpeas. A vital source of plant-based proteins, they play an important role in nutrition for people around the world who do not have enough access to meat. In addition, pulses have nitrogen-f...

Typical dairy cow and calf in Matagalpa Written by Volunteer Daniel Flaherty I had the opportunity in December of 2015 to volunteer on an assignment in Matagalpa, Nicaragua with Partners of The Americas. This was my first time to Latin America and the weather couldn’t have been better. The area, Matagalpa where I was assigned, was located in the mountains approximately a two hour drive north of the capital Managua. It was the beginning of the dry season with gorgeous sunny weather in the 70’s during the day and pleasant sleeping weather at night with no need for air conditioning. The agriculture in the Matagalpa region is predominantly coffee plantations and small and medium size dairy and beef farms producing grass-fed beef, milk and cheese. Most of the farms I visited grazed hi llside pastures for their cattle during the rainy season and grew forages, maize and sorghum on steep terrain to be made into silage and fed during the dry season when the pasture ran short.  F...