Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers Speak on Capitol Hill
On October 26, 2017, four F2F volunteers shared their experiences at two educational briefings on F2F for congressional staff on Capitol Hill.
News
Farmer-to-Farmer Makes History in Goat Reproduction to Combat Malnutrition and Food Insecurity in the Western Highlands, Guatemala
| Partners of the Americas
Guatemala has one of the highest rates of chronic malnutrition in the Americas. However, the situation is most severe in the northern region of the Western Highlands. The Departments of Quiché and Huehuetenango have the highest prevalence of malnutrition in the country, where almost two of every three children suffer from chronic malnutrition. In response to the prevailing problem of child malnutrition in this region, goat milk has represented an important tool to combat malnutrition. In Quiché, Save the Children and the Agros Foundation founded the Center for Goat Production in the Altiplano of Guatemala (CEPROCAL-Altiplano), a goat reproduction center that trains technicians and farmers in the management and production of dairy goats, goat milk, and other goat products.
Behind the Success of the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Approach
| CNFA
The concept of F2F is simple. U.S. volunteers with decades of experience in farming and agriculture-related fields—as well as those with expertise in banking, business, academia and government service—spend about two to four weeks in a developing country working with local counterparts to help improve agricultural productivity.
A Visit by F2F Volunteer and Apiculture Expert, Dr. Ethel Villalobos
| Partners of the Americas
Dr. Villalobos is the Director of the Honeybee Project at the University of Hawaii – Manoa. During her decades-long career of working with honeybees, she has led groundbreaking research on varroa treatments, mite-bee interactions, colony health assessment, as well as hygienic behavior. Moreover, she has also been developing a series of outreach programs for underserved Costa Rican farmers in need of pollination services. In fact, it was her passion for empowering impoverished farmers with practical beekeeping skills, which inspire her to sign up as a volunteer with Partners of the Americas’ F2F program.
NCBA-CLUSA Supports Vanilla Farmers in Madagascar through Cooperative Development
| Anjali Upadhyay
A total of 841 farmers in Madagascar were trained by highly skilled volunteers under National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA’s Farmer-to-Farmer: Addressing Vanilla through Cooperative Enterprise. The project was a one year small grant with Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA)’s Special Program Support Project (SPSP). Volunteers donated a total of 187 days to help smallholder vanilla farmers, and by the end of the project two new cooperatives were established and operational.