News

Opinion: Farmer-to-Farmer: Making a Difference

| CNFA

It is easy to feel that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought life to a standstill. But life does carry on. Every day, the news is full of stories that illustrate the innovative solutions that individuals and organizations are adopting to adapt to this challenging environment—and when needed, to fulfill their …

Volunteer Assistance Transforms Falumbamba Farm in M'banza Kongo, Angola

| CNFA

The Falumbamba Farm is a multi-operational farm that provides agricultural goods and services to Zaire Province, Angola, and employment to the surrounding community.  The farm produces a wide variety of crops on about 1280 hectares (only 20% of the farm) which is sold to markets in Luanda, Soyo and M’Banza Kongo. The farm also provides services to the surrounding community, including land preparation, technical assistance on food production practices and housing construction.

Mushroom Farming Spawns in Malawi

| CNFA

Tisange Association tried multiple ways to achieve financial success; they sold vegetables from their farms, fresh baked bread from their kitchens, and meat from their livestock. They often took out multiple loans from the bank to support them, however, they soon fell into debt. The association, with 23 members from local farms, needed to figure out how to become financially stable. They knew that mushrooms, a traditional part of their diets, could help their profits.

A Hobby Becomes a Business

| CNFA

By reinventing Linga Fruit Wines as a business, there was a clear opportunity to have a more significant impact on local producers. With sufficient demand for its wines, a company would be able to provide these farmers with more stable incomes by purchasing more fruit.

For Madisi Cooperative, F2F Volunteer Made All the Difference in Certification

| CNFA

Madisi Agro-Processors Cooperative Society (MAPCOOP) Limited is a community business organization in Malawi, with 729 members (359 women). The cooperative, formally registered on June 4th 2013, promotes crop diversification – particularly targeting former tobacco farmers – into peanuts, soy beans, sunflowers, Jatropha curcas nuts, hibiscus, and maize.

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.