Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Do you know what it means to be climate-smart? For smallholder banana farmers in the Dominican Republic, climate-smart agriculture can mean the difference between surviving and thriving during extreme weather events. Find out how Partners' Farmer-to-Farmer strategy in the DR is leveraging the agricultural knowledge of American agricultural experts to help Dominicans become more resilient to climate change and ensure a food secure future for their families!

Partners Farmer-to-Farmer Program staff from around the region met last week in the Dominican Republic to receive training, share experiences, and meet with some local hosts. The meeting was a great opportunity for new F2F field staff and seasoned veterans alike to learn from each other and form new relationships. Through these yearly workshops, we aim to build the capacity of F2F staff to collect success stories, measure program impact, and anticipate the needs of hosts and volunteers. Exchanging stories from four diverse F2F countries generated new ideas and excitement about the program and we look forward to carrying that out in the coming months! Below are photos we snapped throughout the week during a field visit to a F2F banana cooperative, workshops, and relaxation time. Enjoy!

This article is a contribution to a blog series on how Partners Agriculture and Food Security programs contribute to the  UN Sustainable Development Goals . This week’s blog highlights the work Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers have been doing to achieve  SDG 17:  Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development. Partnership can be a powerful tool for innovation, development, and social change - key cornerstones of programming at Partners of the Americas. Our Farmer-to-Farmer success stories often focus on sustainable development strategies throughout Guatemala, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua. What we don't often emphasize is the long-lasting impact of F2f on volunteers' lives once they leave their host countries.   While on-site, our volunteers face daily challenges as they apply their skills in unique environments. Check out how agricultural experts use their F2F experiences to improve global partnership and mee...

Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers are selected based on their passion and expertise in a specific area; so it doesn't surprise us that volunteers translate that passion into longer term projects, blogs, presentations, or even more F2F assignments!  Hailing from Absarokee, Montana, long-serving F2F volunteer Wayne Burleson has served through Partners of the Americas in Guatemala and Nicaragua on a variety of occasions. As a horticulture volunteer, Wayne is an expert in organic inputs and organic kitchen gardening and runs a blog that features innovative methods for food gardening.  Below is a sample of the work he's done in his own garden for those with (and without) a green thumb! COMPOST BASKET - a 4-free long-term fertlizer solution Make a small wire basket to hold raw organic matter in, build it right in a growing vegetable garden bed.   Throw into this wire basket: clean kitchen waste, old garden plants, banana peels, over-ripe fruit like avocados etc., dry ...

This article is a contribution to a blog series on how Partners Agriculture and Food Security programs contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals . This week’s blog highlights what Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers have been doing towards  SDG 8: Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment, and decent work for all Did you know that the Latin American and Caribbean region is now the second most enterprising region in the world?! According to the World Bank, 4 out of every 10 Latin American youth hope to become entrepreneurs [ source ]. But it takes a supportive community and a wealth of resources to make entrepreneurship a feasible venture, especially when the cultural stigma of failure can be overwhelming. Despite these barriers, young people across the region are embracing the opportunity to create jobs for themselves through entrepreneurship.  How does Partners help? Through our Farmer-to-Farmer program, we focus on cultivating economic ...

F2F volunteer Howard Fenton prepares notes prior to leading 2 workshops. While many of our volunteer Farmer-to-Farmer projects focus on providing agricultural assistance in host countries, we frequently field volunteers that offer organizational assistance. Organizational assistance allows owners of rural enterprises to make business operations more financially efficient and socially and environmentally sustainable. Organizational projects can take the form of professional development trainings, strategic communications planning, or recordkeeping analysis.  For coffee cooperatives in Haiti’s northern regions surrounding Cap-Haitien, recordkeeping is an invaluable asset for monitoring and controlling day-to-day business costs. F2F volunteer and accountant Howard Fenton took on this challenge as he traveled to Haiti in June to conduct site visits and led several trainings with the coffee cooperatives. As a result of his work, producers will be able to recognize best business pr...

This article is a contribution to a blog series on how Partners Agriculture and Food Security programs contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals . This week’s blog highlights what Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers have been doing towards SDG 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Around the world, women and girls play a crucial role in creating sustainable livelihoods for themselves and their families. However, minimal access to land, credit, training, and leadership positions due to gender-based inequities all too often limits their economic opportunities. For our USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer and Haiti Nutrition Security programs, family spending dynamics play a crucial role in livelihood development. A growing body of research shows that when women have control of familial income, they invest more money in their children’s education, health care, and overall wellbeing. Not only does this dynamic produce positive health and wellness outcomes, but it e...

Veteran F2F Volunteer James Garner conducts field assessments with smallholder farmers in Guyana. A unique element to Partners of the Americas’ Farmer-to-Farmer program is the focus we  place on partnership to achieve broad and lasting community change. From focused project strategies to cutting-edge monitoring and evaluation techniques, we aim to ensure that the impact of F2F lasts beyond immediate volunteer activities .   F2F volunteer Dr. James Garner, former Director of the Department of Agriculture and the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB), traveled to Guyana with Partners for the first time in 1997. After that initial trip, he traveled more than 22 times with Partners F2F Program to assist in the improvement of sweet potato and cassava production practices, among other topics. For the Friendship Farmers Land Cooperative Society, this was a welcome partnership, as producers found it difficult to coordinate improved product quality with higher p...