One of the strengths and benefits of the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program is that the volunteers and local host organizations often develop and maintain strong relationships long after the volunteer assignment ends. Our July Volunteer of the Month, Judy Moses, is a wonderful example of this.

Judy, a member of the Browse & Grass Growers Cooperative in Wisconsin, has volunteered with Winrock six times since 2010, supporting a few different farmers associations in Mali and Guinea. On subsequent trips to the same country, she builds in time to check in on her previous host organizations, and over the years she has formed a deep mutual respect and friendship with both her beneficiaries and the local Winrock staff. As a result of these connections and a deep commitment to improving the lives of African farmers, Judy recently won a small grant award to manage her own Farmer-to-Farmer program in Mali!

We asked Judy to reflect on her prior experiences as a F2F volunteer. She shares her thoughts below:

What inspired you to begin volunteering with F2F?

Another volunteer recommended and connected me to an Ethiopian assignment in about 2006. I did a sheep and goat assessment through the highlands. To have a landrover, driver, translator, and huge detailed map was just totally amazing. I still have and prize that map. It was a number of years before I had the opportunity to volunteer again, and that was in Mali.

What have been some of the most memorable moments from your various volunteer assignments?

I have raised livestock for almost three decades, and I still learn something new and amazing about sheep and goats every year. During the last several years, a significant part of my learning has involved volunteer assignments. We (cooperative members) struggle, just like other producers, with lambing deaths, balancing rations, pasture watering systems, cost controls, labor availability, implementing and maintaining appropriate conservation programs. Do these experiences transfer to such a faraway place as Africa? We have found that they do. There are more similarities between us than differences.

One of my trainees in Lofine, Mali [so beautifully] said, “The light of the sun and the light of the moon together are not as bright as the light of the knowledge you brought to this village!” 

Another trainee, in Dladie, Mali, told me, “Come back! We will show you how we listened… how we will apply this. Even if I am called in the middle of the night to attend a training, I would now hurry to do so!

How could I not come back?

What inspired you to apply for the F2F small grant?

I wanted to go beyond farmer helping farmer to cooperative helping cooperative. Information on the F2F grant came into my email box, and I noticed our cooperative actually qualified. We had a conference call discussion on whether the cooperative wanted to take on the responsibility of such a project. Being first of all farmers, none of our members have discretionary income or time, and global activities certainly aren’t in our bylaws. But our members did feel a connection to the villagers I volunteered with, so I was given the “ok” to proceed with caution. I then contacted former Winrock staff in Mali, and they were excited. The former Winrock F2F project director in Mali contacted Winrock’s Director of Volunteer Technical Assistance in the US, and she offered her support. The Winrock recruiter I worked with the most had retired, but she offered her support at no-cost. At this point, we committed. Having this critical support convinced the hesitant members that if funded, we could actually implement. It would have been not only difficult but impossible to do this project without the former Winrock F2F staff’s support and eagerness to participate. They are the heart of this project. I am only facilitating resources so they can succeed.

We have named the project Common Pastures: Sustaining Flocks, Farms, and Families. As with our cooperative in the US, it is devoted to the art and science of integrating animals, trees, shrubs, crops, and pasture.

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All of us at Winrock are so inspired by Judy. We are very excited to see what this new project will achieve! Learn more at www.commonpastures.org orhttps://www.facebook.com/CommonPastures

In today’s blog post, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Richard Janita shares his enthusiasm for volunteerism and the country of Bangladesh!

Many people ask me, what I do with my time being retired? My answer for the most part is that I volunteer my time to help others in developing countries to have safer food, better nutrition, and a taste of better tasting dairy products than they currently experience.

I just returned from my 4th trip to Bangladesh; yes, Bangladesh. It has grown over the last ten years with new infrastructure and sky rise buildings as many other countries have with time. The general population is full of smiles and hospitality even as poor as they are. I am always amazed how people can be so happy having so little. I’ve been to fifteen plus countries since the early 80’s and just one other more times than Bangladesh. Seeing the smiles on faces when the job became easier for them is so rewarding.

So, if you desire a new experience and want to share and leave a little of your spirit on the planet 10,000 miles from the USA, share your knowledge because the planet sure needs it!

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.”-Benjamin Franklin

A defining moment, one that irrefutably changes the trajectory of what is to come, often only occurs once or twice in lifetime. My trip to Bangladesh, which sought to improve molecular diagnostics used to recognize shrimp diseases more efficiently and accurately, may best be described as just that, a defining moment of my life.

Education has served as a cornerstone in my life, a way to explore the world of both concrete objects and intangible thought. As Franklin said in the quote above, I truly believe that few things in life pay better long-term dividends than the act of knowledge transfer.

Improving the sustainability of aquaculture, both locally and internationally, is an issue close to my heart. Therefore, when I was given the chance to share my knowledge through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer program and Winrock International, I jumped at it!  I was excited to travel to Bangladesh in order to work in conjunction with Khulna University in furthering that goal of sustainability.  Since returning, my enthusiasm has not dissipated. While in the beautiful and eclectic country of Bangladesh, I was greeted by fantastic staff, wonderful support, and eager students.  The main scope of the work that we accomplished was the use of a microbial cloning technique that allowed for the creation of a positive-control which detects an insidious viral shrimp pathogen when using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In short, the development of this positive-control will allow for a more accurate classification of disease status.

The paramount importance of this positive-control lies in the fact that it can help farmers decide which shrimp they want to stock.  Shrimp and prawn farming in Bangladesh is extremely important as a means to provide both nutritional and economic support for the local populations. However, recently the economic viability of shrimp farming has been challenged by the emergence, and rampant spread of, the white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). This disease can be detected through PCR, but until recently, we were not able to determine if a negative-result meant shrimp were truly virus-free or that the test merely failed to recognize the DNA.  Now, through the collaboration of myself, and truly exceptional researchers, Drs. Nazmul Ashan and Arun K. Dhar, Khulna University has the means to develop many more effective tests. These new techniques will allow farmers to stock pathogen-free brood stock, female shrimp, or juveniles and thus help mitigate the spread of WSSV.

I am extremely grateful for this chance to travel and share my knowledge. In doing so, I gained innumerable benefits, of which I will try and name a few: a deeper understanding of research in the field, a network of professionals whom I can work with throughout my career for the mutual betterment of all parties, a new perspective on my own ability to contribute to knowledge transfer, and lastly, cultural interactions that improved my own perception of a part of the world I formerly knew little about.

I look forward to future collaboration, and believe that this project allowed for the addition of one more piece to the complex puzzle that is sustainable aquaculture.

As for me personally, the impact of this assignment is as of yet to be fully determined, but what I can say is this, my defining moment, that moment that has now irrefutably changed the trajectory of my life’s course, was the moment I realized that one person, although potentially incapable of changing the entire world, through collaboration and determination can improve it any day; all she must do is choose that course.

–Rachel Bone, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer, Bangladesh

Dr. Martin Lo just returned from a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment in Bangladesh and shares his thoughts in today’s blog post:

“Bangladesh, a place that feels like home! –Not only is this the heading on my first slide above the Bangladesh map when I delivered a seminar on Good Agriculture Practices (GAPs) at the Cold Chain Bangladesh Alliance” (CCBA) office in Dhaka the day before my departure, but it is also my true feeling about this lovely country, despite the fact that I was constantly reminded how populated it is whenever I hit the road. This was my third visit to Bangladesh, a country that has the most beautiful farmland in all 30+ countries I have visited.

The most important message I delivered was: ‘Thank you all for choosing farming as your career, which is among the most difficult professions a person can get, but it is the future of human beings. Whoever knows how to grow food to feed their people is going to be the leader of the world.’  Agriculture in developing countries like Bangladesh has always been about the crops; however, in my humble opinion, it is the people who should be the center of agriculture. No healthy and happy farmers, no quality and nutritious agriculture commodities!

Farmers are not getting the profit they deserve. Example: in January 2015 a head of beautifully grown cabbage was valued at an unbelievably low 2 Taka, whereas the same month during my visit to Taipei such a cabbage is priced at almost 80 Taka (slightly higher than US$1). I wish I could have extra luggage to carry all the cabbages to Taipei to make a fortune, but I shouldn’t be the one making the fortune. No one other than the farmers deserves to profit from the beautifully grown produce. I was glad to hear that a bridge is being built to connect the Jessore area to the east, which can provide better transportation for the produce to reach major cities in the country.

I also showed a figure where Bangladesh was ranked no. 8 in the world for mango production in 2011, then the next figure showing the top 10 data for mango exportation during the same year, and Bangladesh was nowhere to be found on the list. Why?  Many farmers, scientists, and NGO employees attending would argue that it was because of the huge population in country, so no extra mango to export. However, if you dig further in the news and literature, it is not difficult to find reports that some farmers are using calcium carbide to ripen mangos; others are using formalin to preserve mangos. A few suspect that growth hormone might be used in some locations. That’s why the country needs a systematic management scheme that could reduce and eventually eliminate misuse of harmful chemicals during cultivation and post harvest.

It was intriguing when one farmer told me he wears a mask when spraying agrochemicals but unfortunately the mask was a loaner that day to another farmer. I insisted that I wish to see the ‘legendary’ mask and won’t leave until I see it. Finally the mysterious mask showed up.  It was more like a decorative piece of makeup, I said.  A simple fabric with two loops that go around the ears.  That’s it. I took a picture and used it for all subsequent trainings and seminars. It was this picture, along with the ones showing how farmers spray pesticides into the air without protection gear that helped me convince a big food processing company in Dhaka to donate personal protection equipment (PPE) to their contract farmers. The company also agreed that social entrepreneurship is the way to go, and they will use their textile and plastic business to produce low-cost and effective PPE to supply to farmers in the country.

There is no magic in upgrading agriculture practices. It won’t happen overnight. But if we don’t do something today just because it seems so difficult, it can only be more difficult tomorrow. I specifically pointed this out when talking to all parties involved and/or interested in establishing GAPs for Bangladesh. When something is difficult, it doesn’t mean it’s impossible. I was so glad to gather positive feedbacks from all attendees to my seminar before departure. All agreed that it will take two to three phases of efforts to implement GAPs here. During Phase I, as proposed by me, one needs to demonstrate to the farmers the benefits of GAPs so they can focus on the most critical aspects to reduce immediate food safety and health threats. Once the farmers could see the cost reduction when going with biological control such as pheromone traps instead of spraying chemicals, then they could generate some cash flow to improve their facilities. The bitter gourd farmers proudly told me they were able to save up to 70% production cost by using pheromone traps throughout their fields. Such good news should be of interest to all, and the extension educators need to help out.

More work to be done, and that’s why I am coming back in September 2015 to continue the efforts.”

–Martin

 [Thanks much for your efforts, Dr. Lo!]