Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

In September 2019, Ira Richards volunteered with the Farmer-to-Farmer program in Guatemala to make a diagnosis of the current agricultural practices and production systems being used in the regions of Huehuetenango where Project Concern International (PCI) works. PCI is a global development organization working in vulnerable communities through various projects and activities that improve the livelihood and resilience of its inhabitants. Ira Richards boosted PCI activities in several communities by training technicians and smallholder farmers on ways to increase crop productivity and soil quality by using dry-land farming practices that families could implement right away to adapt to climate change. He proposed establishing trials of green manure, local plants with high nutritional value, contour lines, crop diversification, and technology transfer through successful farmers in each community he visited. So far, the results of Ira's assignment are: PCI purchased approximately...

ISA University , located in the city of Santiago de los Caballeros, is a higher education center known for its commitment to environmental, natural, and agricultural education. A F2F Volunteer was requested to complement the entomology knowledge of university students and high school Biology teachers through training sessions and workshops.  In October 2019, Mario Moratorio, a doctor in Entomology from the University of London and Farm Advisor Emeritus from the University of California Cooperative Extension supported Universidad ISA in the Dominican Republic with this Entomology teaching assignment. He taught students and teachers basic entomology concepts that will be very useful for their degrees and work during daily training sessions. He also held classes on the taxonomy of different insects and gave a final talk to 68 teachers called “Entomology as a door for teaching environmental sciences”.  At the end of his assignment, Dr. Moratorio recommended that ISA...

One of F2F Colombia’s most important partner organizations is CorpoValle, a non-profit development agency focused on agricultural development projects in Colombia’s Valle del Cauca department. They support 65 smallholder agricultural associations comprised of 3,200 fruit and vegetable growers from 29 municipalities, impacting approximately 12,000 people. F2F Colombia has completed eight volunteer assignments with 11 different associations under CorpoValle. One of these was with ASOPROUVAS, a smallholder farmer association that produces Isabella grapes in the El Cerrito municipality. ASOPROUVAS currently works with 50 producers that grow about 600 tons of grapes every six months. Although about 90% of the ASOPROUVAS associates are actively involved in the organization, by December of 2019, when the volunteer arrived, most were still selling their produce independently. Individual selling is an issue because it increases the likelihood of opportunistic behavior by buyers, reduces their...

Erfan Vafaie, an Extension Program Specialist in Integrated Pest Management with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, completed a two-week volunteer assignment from June 16th – 30th 2019, in Guyana as a Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Volunteer with Partners of the Americas . He worked closely with staff from the  National Agricultural Research & Extension Institute (NAREI) and with private producers from various regions. The whole of his first week was spent visiting farmers. Over 20 farms were visited, and more than 70 people were formally trained. Specific details about those visits can be found on his blog here: Farmer-2-Farmer: Guyana 2019 . Erfan identified some of the key crop challenges that local farmers were facing: 50% of the young coconut trees were lost to rhinoceros beetle, there was a 60% loss of watermelons to rind necrosis, and 100% of the guava fruit was lost to the guava fruit fly, to name a few. Erfan spent the better part of his first weekend in Guyana learning more ...

M ichael Doherty,  an Economist and Cooperative Advisor from Illinois,  volunteered with the Farmer-to-Farmer program in Guatemala in October of 2019. He completed a Potato Marketing assignment with our host FENAPAPA (the National Potato Federation). FENAPAPA and its n ew marketing branch, the CODAM cooperative, were founded by a Guatemalan rural development non-profit called  FundaSistemas. FENAPAPA was founded  in 2012 with the am of increasing the potato production of small landholders in the San Marcos district of the Western Highlands of Guatemala. FENAPAPA is overseen by an active five-member Board of Directors that represents the needs of 17 underlying farmer associations spread out across the mountains and valleys of the district.      Historically, the  potato production agribusiness in Guatemala  has been passed on from generation to generation,  and they have not had access to training or technical assistance that could help t...

Benjamin Baldi came to Jamaica in January 2020 as a response to the need of an agriculture training institution to expand its knowledge of mushroom production to train students who can become farmers in the future . “ People of all ages were drawn to the oddity of the topic. When they began to realize the prevalence of these organisms in our ecosystems and the potential that lies within the mycelial network, they couldn’t help but become absorbed into the fascinating world of fungi.” said Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Benjamin Baldi. Mr. Baldi invested time in understanding the dynamics of the mushroom supply chain in Jamaica and realized that “ a real concern is not having a consistent source of spawn .” Baldi then said that “ Ebony Park could master spawn production and disseminate that information to all who wish to know.” Ebony Park Academy is a multidisciplinary institution that has a high priority in agricultural training. The institution trains approximately 500 adults annually...

Dr. Elon and ISA students visiting an Asian vegetable exporting association A lack of knowledge and experience when it comes to research has resulted in difficulties in the formation of professionals in the Dominican Republic. ISA University, located in Santiago de los Caballeros, was not fulfilling its potential or capacity for impact in Dominican research, despite being known for its specialized degrees in farming, natural resources and education.  Elon Gilbert, who has a PhD in Economics from Stanford University, volunteered through Farmer-to-Farmer in September 2019 by training professors and outstanding students from ISA University's Business School. He taught them to design quantitative and qualitative studies, write research articles or papers, and select research instruments and methods of data analysis.  Dr. Gilbert has over 50 years of international experience associated with FAO, the World Bank, USAID, private foundations, governments, and NGOs; with a ...

In February 2020, Attia Qureshi volunteered in Colombia to train and work with staff and associates of CorpoValle on conflict resolution and relationship management. Attia has a B.A. in Business Administration, an M.S. in Integrated Design and Management from MIT and studied communication, negotiation and conflict resolution at Harvard’s Law School of Negotiation. She works as a consultant, helping organizations deal with change and training them on how to grow, communicate and deal with uncertainty. In the past she has volunteered in Peru, South Africa and Turkey.  During her two-week assignment, she trained Corpovalle staff on how to manage internal conflict in the associations they support. In addition, she visited some of the groups with more problems to help them find solutions. She tried to understand the biggest problems they face and helped them come to a resolution that promotes effectiveness and growth. In total, she worked with eight different associations and t...