Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

By: José Cano,  Guatemala Farmer-to-Farmer Country Coordinator As Partners reaches the halfway point of its 2013-2018 Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, our staff are reviewing and analyzing program data and reflecting on the program so far. Below, José Cano, the Country Coordinator for the Guatemala F2F program, shares highlights and information on what the program has been able to accomplish so far in Guatemala. F2F Country Coordinator, José Cano, presenting the F2F program to a women's group To keep advancing Guatemala´s development we have to answer three basic questions: 1) What do we have? 2) What do we want? and 3) How do we accomplish the results we want to see? The Farmer-to-Farmer program is playing an important role in strengthening rural development in Guatemala by upgrading capacity building, supporting rural value chains with high potential for impact, focusing on gender, and facilitating strategic alliances with public, academic, private, and international coo...

Digital Marketing is one way that entrepreneurs and producers across the globe can reach new markets and increase sales. But what is digital marketing and how can a small Colombian business use it to maximize the number of people who come across its brand? These are the questions that Zen Naturals was asking itself. Zen Naturals is a natural cosmetic manufacturing company based in Cali, Colombia. Zen Naturals develops natural cosmetics made from exotic ingredients from Colombia’s outstanding biodiversity. Through ethical manufacturing and fair trade practices, they are also taking a leadership role in re-investing in the communities that grow the ingredients used in their products. Currently, Zen Naturals supports more than 95 Colombian quinoa farming communities through Fair-Trade Practices and technical assistance on their production. Zen Naturals is preparing to launch their quinoa facial care products in Whole Foods Markets in the mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. in 2017....

As Partners reaches the halfway point of its 2013-2018 Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, our staff are reviewing and analyzing program data and reflecting on the program so far. Below, we take a closer look at the Calf Quality Improvement Program, a partnership between F2F Nicaragua, CONAGAN, and CANICARNE.  Situation The European and US markets are interested in importing high-quality beef from Nicaragua. In order for Nicaragua livestock industries to take advantage of these opportunities, they need to ensure that best agricultural practices are in place throughout the livestock value chain. Partners of the Americas’ F2F program is ideally situated to play a leading role in these efforts given the long history of collaborating with partners across the livestock value chain by facilitating the transfer of technical assistance that contributes to the adoption of good agricultural practices. The Livestock and Dairy project strategy aims to build the capacity of Nicaragua’s livestock ...

Haiti is re-emerging on the international coffee scene and is being led by some innovative and forward-thinking coffee producers. These producers are not just growing and selling great coffee, but they are reforesting the country and developing rural enterprise as they go. Political instability and failed development efforts are part of the story of Haiti’s decline on the international coffee market. But that did not stop Makouti Agro Enterprise from working as a backbone organization to fill the gaps and reboot the coffee industry. Makouti, a local Haitian-led host organization and partner organization of the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, has been working with producers in northern Haiti and one of their coffee field technicians was Jean Jacques (Jacquelin) Lucas. Jacquelin, who has over fifteen years of experience as an expert producer, along with Benito Jasmin, Makouti founder and F2F country coordinator, had the vision to create a coffee cooperative that would lev...

By Rebecca Roebber, Marketing Director at indi chocolate and F2F volunteer Kishé coffee has some of the best coffee in the world, grown at high altitude in rich volcanic soil by a majority of women farmers. They go above and beyond to meet international consumer demand by paying for their coffee to be certified Fair-Trade, Organic and Kosher. (Yes, these are expenses that farmers pay to third party entities.) They roast their beans in Xela, Guatemala and sell green beans internationally. They also sub contract work to a roaster in LA who fulfills any roasted coffee orders within the United States.  The goal is to eventually sell the majority of their coffee as roasted coffee beans in the United States, however, competing with the ‘local’ coffee movement has proven to be a challenge. Why does a cooperative of farmers, with some of the highest quality coffee beans in the world have trouble selling their roasted coffee beans? I live in Seattle, home of Starbucks and a coffee ro...