Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

In September 2019, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Mike Frinsko travelled to Jamaica for two weeks to help evaluate opportunities for finfish mariculture in the island nation. Mr. Frinsko holds a MSc in Wildlife Ecology with a focus in Aquaculture from Mississippi State University and works as an Aquaculture Specialized Agent with North Carolina Extension. This assignment is the first in a sequence of projects concerned with jumpstarting the Jamaican mariculture industry, and Mike aimed to evaluate the potential of the business by taking into account the available resources including market demand, host knowledge, monetary and natural resource availability and facility location.  Jamaica continues to experience modest, but sustained population growth. Fish is a commonly consumed protein staple, something that has historically been plentiful as a fresh or fresh-on-ice product. As the demand for fish products is increasing, artisanal fishers have had to reach farther and deeper to outlyin...

Due to the impacts of the COVID-19 virus and travel restrictions around the world, in-person Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer assignments have been on hold since March 2020. Partners of the Americas’ F2F decided to use this opportunity to innovate by initiating remote assignments. This has resulted in new opportunities for our hosts, including new organizations we had not worked with before. And what is more exciting than a new host with their first assignment? A volunteer completing three assignments at once with a new host!  Rebecca Roebber is a seasoned F2F volunteer and expert in cacao sourcing and marketing who worked several years in Ecuador for a cacao company. She recognized the quality of Dominican cacao and was happy to support Natural Hispaniola, a family enterprise that started organic cocoa production and processing about two years ago. Prior to COVID-19, they had hoped to increase in-person sales of their protein bar, EnergyKAO, however, the pandemic forced them to e...

Arturo Noriega traveled to Colombia in November 2019 to train and work with staff and associates of ASOFRUTIFLOR, APROGUA and ACUBF on business plan development. Arturo is the founder and CEO of Centro Community Partners , a non-profit organization that fosters socioeconomic change by providing business advisory services and leadership programs to rising yet underserved entrepreneurs who want to launch or grow their businesses and create jobs in their communities. Arturo has more than 20 years of work experience as a management consultant, specializing in economic development, strategy, governance, risk management, finance, and organizational change management. He has an MBA in Strategic Management and Leadership, a BA in Economics as well as a concentration in Finance.  The three organizations that Arturo supported are smallholder farmer associations that are being supported by CorpoValle, a non-profit development agency focused on planning, evaluating and implementing agricultu...

Working in Guyana though Partners of the Americas has been both a proud and humbling experience for this beekeeper from Louisiana. I have been keeping bees for over 15 years and working with the beekeepers in Guyana reminds me of how much there is to share as well as how much there is to learn . My first visit to Guyana in 2013 was to share my knowledge of raising honeybee queens. My teammate and I worked with beekeepers who manage hives along the Mangrove Reserve. While we shared hive management techniques the beekeepers taught us the importance of the Mangrove tree for protecting Guyana's coastline and how important the bees are for pollination on the Reserve.  Practicing grafting larva for queen-rearing in 2013 On a later assignment in Guyana, our team shared beekeeping training skills as well as helped perform the first Pest and Disease Survey for Guyana. The beekeepers had noticed a varroa mite in a few of the hives and it was important for there to be a baseline established f...

Guatemala is a land with a multitude of cultures, languages and traditions woven tightly and colorfully together like the patterned textiles on display in every market. The Farmer-to-Farmer program matches volunteers from the U.S. with agricultural partners in countries like Guatemala, to train locals on topics like organic farming practices and how to prepare products for the local and global market.  The Asociación de Cooperación al Desarrollo Integral de Huehuetenango (ACODIHUE) is an agricultural association that supports smallholder farmers. It offers training and fair wages for indigenous people, equal opportunities for women, and social services. ACODIHUE works with coffee and honey producers in the mountains of the department of Huehuetenango and provides them with financial and agricultural training and assistance to ensure they get the most fruitful harvests possible. The coffee produced is both for export and domestic consumption while the honey is for domestic consum...

In November 2019, the Minard Estates Farm was pleased to have Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Caroline Patrick-Birdwell participate in a Farm Mapping assignment. Caroline holds a master’s degree in geographic information systems (GIS) and works as a contract and senior GIS analyst for Tucson Electric Power Company. During her assignment, Caroline collected spatial data on the Minard Estates Farm associated with existing roads, pasture conditions and uses, and irrigation networks.  This data was placed into a geographic information system (GIS) and mapped. The final deliverable was a large format printed map. Once the map was developed and printed, it was provided to Agro Investment Corporation (AIC), the governing body of Minard Estates. The map was unveiled at the Minard Show, an annual event with over 7,000 students and teachers in attendance. Ms. Patrick-Birdwell also produced a web-based map that can be viewed online.  The two maps can be used for planning and progress-tracking...

Shireen talking to Gustavo Gandini from the Biodiversity department, in November 2019. Bananos Ecológicos de la Línea Noroeste (Banelino), a banana cooperative in the Dominican Republic, has developed a Banana School (Escuela Bananera) to teach farmers and interested youth how to grow bananas. However, their manual for teaching needed to be updated to be more interactive with students as well as computer friendly. To update their teaching materials, Shireen Lakhani traveled to the Dominican Republic in November of 2019 to support Banelino through the Farmer-to-Farmer program. She uploaded two of the manual’s seven modules into an e-learning platform to ensure that the future generation of farmers will be able to use the updated materials to learn more autonomously.  More recently, in May of 2020, Shireen decided to continue supporting Banelino remotely, as a response to the travel restrictions due to COVID-19. She is teaching Banelino staff how to use e-learning modules more effect...

In Colombia, Fedepanela is the national federation of panela producers. Founded in 1939, it represents more than 276 panela associations that encompass 18,900 panela producers. They are currently focused on ensuring the sustainability and modernization of the panela industry, but although they have provided their producers with short and simple trainings, they do not have the resources to provide them with in-depth capacity building. In recent years, p anela cooperatives in Colombia have been transitioning from traditional smallholder farmer associations to big- and medium-sized businesses. Therefore, Fedepanela reached out to the Farmer-to-Farmer program to request a volunteer to strengthen the financial management and planning capacity of several small associations, in order to accelerate this transition. Vivian Horvath was the volunteer chosen for this assignment. Vivian has an undergraduate degree in Economics, Administration and Finance from Bocconi University and several ye...

Plants do not only provide us with sustenance and the air we breathe. They can also bring joy and confidence to those with disabilities. Maureen Regan used horticulture therapy when she served as a Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer in Guyana in July 2019. Maureen completed a Horticulture Therapy Certification Program at the School of Professional Horticulture at the New York Botanical Garden. In Guyana, there is a dearth of resources and technology to help people with disabilities. There is an urgent need for equipment, centers, outreach, and education. Caring for plants can help fill this gap by being beneficial to the processes of rehabilitation and wellness. Horticulture therapy can be practiced with few resources because special equipment is not needed, and it can reinforce attributes such as empathy, trust, sharing, team-building, and the motivation for growth. Those with disabilities can further gain physical, cognitive, and social skills. During her time in Guyana, Regan visited eight ...