Volunteer Stories
Julie Longland
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal
Name: Julie Longland
Current title/profession: Technical Development Manager
Current hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Areas of expertise: Integrated pest management (IPM), pesticide development, seed treatment, pesticide mobility, whole organism biology, agriculture development and food security, science outreach and education, facilitation and training
ASSIGNMENT OVERVIEW
Location of the projects: Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Nepal, Senegal
Organization that sent the volunteer: ACDI/VOCA
VOLUNTEER IMPACT
Julie Longland has served as a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer in Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Nepal and Senegal. Ms. Longland is a scientist with extensive industry and academic experience in the areas of integrated pest management (IPM), pesticide development, seed treatment, pesticide mobility, whole organism biology, agriculture development and food security, science outreach and education, facilitation and training.
Her Farmer-to-Farmer work has largely been in Integrated Pest Management, which is a set of practices that combines both pesticide and non-pesticide methods to control agricultural pests. She has also helped farmers all over the the world use pesticides more safely and taught first aid for pesticide exposure. In Senegal, Ms. Longland advised a farmers group, most of whose members are women, on how to monitor their crops for signs of insect damage. She also helped the group identify and encourage beneficial insects, rotate their crops and store their seeds properly. In Nepal, Ms. Longland worked with farmers to identify and manage rhizome rot in ginger, club root in brassicas and how to deal with invasive bamboo. Ms. Longland often evokes family connections as a reason to use pesticides carefully and safely. For example, in farm supply stores in Ethiopia and Nepal where the owners’ children work and play, she helped the store owners develop ways of keeping pesticides away from children and food. The Farmer-to-Farmer program is very thankful to Ms. Longland for her time and expertise, and we hope to host her on many more volunteer assignments.
This article was written by ACDI/VOCA. Download the PDF here.