A Review of the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) FLEX Program in Colombia

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By Andrés Varona, Agriculture & Food Security Program Officer at Partners of the Americas 

F2F Volunteer  Femke Olham led a series of technical workshops with Raizal communities in Providencia Island. These trainings were centered on ways to safely capture rainwater and channel it to local orchards.

In the last six years, Partners of the Americas (Partners) has been supporting agriculture, food security, and natural resource management in Colombia through the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program.  Since 2011, Partners has assisted over 1,500 people and formally trained 1,131 individuals (681 men and 450 women) in a variety of technical assistance areas such as entrepreneurship, small business development and administration, international marketing, tropical post-harvest processing, livestock management, citrus nursery management, climate change, and soil and water conservation in Colombia.

F2F Nicholas DiLorenzo (right) visits banana fields with Universidad de La Salle agronomy students in Yopal

In this current cycle (2013 - 2018) of the F2F program, Partners has sent a 12 U.S agriculturalists and enterprise development specialists to Colombia. Our key partners in Colombia include small agribusinesses, environmental non-profit organizations, government agencies, and universities. In conjunction with our local partners and host organizations, many of these field assignments have taken place in numerous rural communities across the country’s diverse micro-climates. These F2F volunteers assignments have included a wide variety of technical fields within agriculture and food security, including water conservation, integrated pest management, value-added processing for citrus, as well as digital marketing and branding. Here are some examples of past Farmer-to-Farmer assignments in Colombia:
  •      A LEED-certified architectural designer worked with CORPONARIÑO on the design for a “green” sub-regional headquarters in Túquerres.
  •       An herb and fruit specialist provided training to the staff of Parque Ecológico Mundo Amazónico in dehydration techniques for tropical climates for the purpose of making teas.
  •       An agroforestry specialist trained local farmers in Urrao in basic agroforestry, vermiculture, and allelopathy.
  •       A team of volunteers worked in Old Providence and San Andres Islands on a food and water security project.
  •      A cosmetic chemist tested manufacturing processes and re-developed formulas for all-natural organic cosmetics to meet international standards.
  •      An international marketing specialist assisted a company in developing an international marketing strategy and improving their brand and labeling to increase product appeal to U.S. consumers.
  •      A soil fertility expert conducted trainings on fruit tree production and soil management to over 376 educators, students, producers, and agricultural technicians in Buga, Colombia.
  •      An animal science expert assisted LaSalle University in developing a standardized livestock handling and management plan that was incorporated into academic curriculum.
In the coming months, Partners of the Americas’s Farmer-to-Farmer program will continue to support agricultural value chains in Colombia.  As part of these efforts, we will send a series of F2F volunteer to provide assistance to Zen Naturals, a small Cali-based natural skincare company. This assistance will include organic chemists to research and develop new quinoa-based natural products as well as business and marketing experts to support the roll out of Zen Natural’s Zue Beauty product line in the North America market. 



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