Growing Knowledge & Building Partnerships

Our first volunteer for the 2019-2023 F2F cycle was Melanie Forstrom! Melanie traveled to the Dominican Republic in February of 2019 to support our field office staff in defining the Youth in Agriculture Development (YAD) country project strategy that will be implemented during the cycle. Melanie has 14 years of experience in youth education and experiential learning, including work with homeless undocumented youth and alternative high school youth. She has led 4-H programs since 2011, including a public speaking training and evaluation program, and science and tech mentoring programs serving youth under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. She has served as a F2F volunteer on several occasions in the past. During the two weeks of her assignment, she gave two presentations to young farmers and met with different hosts like BANELINO , Plan Yaque , and Fundación REDDOM . Melanie gathered data through stakeholder interviews, focus groups, and d

Finamiga is a Colombian microfinance institution with six years of experience that promotes financial inclusion through six types of financial products, including micro-loans for small and medium agricultural producers to acquire inputs, fertilizers, and farming machinery to boost their production. They currently operate in five Colombian departments and employ 120 people. In May 2020 the organization requested a F2F volunteer to help them improve their use of technology to capture, manage and analyze their client data. The chosen volunteer for this assignment was Jacob Shiman, who holds a BA in Political Science and Government and an MSc in Global Affairs focused on the role of finance in development. He is passionate about financial inclusion for small businesses in the developing world and has worked in financial sector development, microfinance and fintech. Jacob began working remotely with Finamiga in June of 2020 and met frequently with Finamiga’s Director and COO until January 2

  The Permaculture-Sahakari and Organic Gardeners Group is a network of permaculture and organic gardening and farming enthusiasts from Guyana. It comprises a lose membership of 82 gardeners and farmers. The organization began in June 2019 through a WhatsApp group that they use to share knowledge and resources, and to advertise and market organic produce and inputs.   Permaculture is an increasingly important priority for smallholder farmers in Guyana, as it focuses on the interrelationships and sustainability of natural ecosystems. It includes the principles of organic farming, agroforestry, integrated farming, sustainable development, and applied ecology. Although two members of the Permaculture-Sahakari and Organic Gardeners Group have been trained in permaculture, in general the group does not have the experience nor technical capacity to design their farms in keeping with the principles of permaculture. Therefore, they requested a F2F volunteer to train members of the group on p

In Jamaica, the Rural Agricultural Development Authority (RADA) is a statutory body under the Ministry of Agriculture and Lands. It is Jamaica’s chief agricultural extension and rural development agency. RADA’s Livestock unit is one of six subset units within the organization, which is staffed by livestock officers covering all 14 parishes in Jamaica. In late 2020, RADA’s Livestock Unit requested a F2F remote volunteer to equip its livestock extension officers with soft skills in grant proposal writing. Their plan is that once trained, these officers can support farmers and rural communities with accessing funds. The chosen volunteer for this assignment was Leslie Harris Cosgrove, a vibrant, knowledgeable, and experienced grant proposal writing specialist. She is the founder & CEO of AMARANT Village, a global nonprofit dedicated to working with people to solve their own problems, and to build capacity within networks, communities, and villages around the globe by coordinating proje

Esta semana continuamos con los webinars que el programa Farmer-to-Farmer Guatemala está realizando en alianza con agrocadenas nacionales, enfocadas en fortalecer los conocimientos de productores en el área pecuaria y agrícola. En estos webinars hemos contado con la participación de productores, estudiantes universitarios, profesores y miembros de organizaciones interesadas en promover los conocimientos pecuarios y agrícolas. La mayoría de los participantes son guatemaltecos, pero también se ha contado con asistentes internacionales de países como Honduras, Nicaragua, México y República Dominicana. Los horarios en los que se realizan los webinars han permitido que los productores pueden asistir, sin dejar las actividades de sus granjas, fincas o actividades laborales. El próximo webinar será mañana  viernes 12 de marzo , a las 6pm (hora de Guatemala) con la Agrocadena Caprina Nacional, donde el tema será “Enfermedades que Afectan al Rebaño Caprino en Guatemala – Controles y Planes

Banelino is an organic Banana association founded in 1996 by seven small banana producers from the province of Montecristi, in the northwest of the Dominican Republic, very close to the border with the Republic of Haiti.  Banelino is made up of more than 330 small producers who own an average of three hectares and sell about 35,000 boxes of bananas per week. 95% of their production is organic and 90% is certified as Fair Trade. They have established a Banana School (Escuela Bananera) to teach its local farmers and other interested youth how to grow bananas. However, their teaching manual needed to be updated to ensure it was computer friendly and more interactive for the students. Therefore, in mid-2019 Banelino requested a F2F volunteer to update their teaching materials and convert the manual’s contents into an e-learning platform. The chosen volunteer for this assignment was Shireen Lakhani. She holds a Masters in Instructional Design and Technology with a certificate in e-learning

The Colombian Association of Microfinance Institutions, Asomicrofinanzas, is a microfinance network created in 2009 with the objective of representing the industry and promoting financial inclusion. Asomicrofinanzas comprises of approximately 40 institutions that serve 90% of the country’s microfinance sector. It provides services and products to organizations that contribute to overcoming poverty in Colombia, actively participates in the definition of relevant public policies and carries out other activities that seek to contribute to the institutional strengthening of its associates and to consolidate the association as the leader of microcredit in the country. They are currently working to improve how microfinance institutions serve small and midsize farmers and agricultural enterprises. Therefore, they requested a remote and a local F2F volunteer to help them define how to reduce payment defaults and better detect if a client will be able to pay. The remote volunteer chosen for thi

Dr. Harold Lynn Beck traveled to Guyana for two weeks in September 2019 to train farmers from four producer groups on farm business management. Dr. Beck holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of Missouri and works as a lead instructor in the School of Business at Southern Illinois University. The volunteer visited various regions in Guyana and gained an insight of vegetable production at various scales and through different methods such as hydroponics, field, and elevated and on the ground seedbeds. During his first visit to each farm, he recorded their costs of production. Once he had that information, he created a computer simulation model in Excel to estimate the farmers’ costs, that would accommodate the different production systems. He then met with each group of farmers again, to show them the results and train them to use the model. To start the producers on the road to record-keeping, he also designed three forms for them to collect data. They can then summ