For about 5 years, the USAID Value Chains for Rural Development (VC-RD) project, implemented by Winrock International, has been supporting the melon value chain in Myanmar along with grantee Myanmar Fruit, Flower, and Vegetable Producer and Exporter Association (MFVP). In 2016 and 2017, VC-RD and MFVP hosted various melon production volunteers, including Dr. Timothy Coolong, to assess the melon value chain and train melon farmers. These volunteers found significant issues affecting the melon value chain: Bacteria Fruit Blotch (BFB) disease and high postharvest losses at the packaging and handling stage.

MFVP decided that exposure to best practices from US farmers would be beneficial for Myanmar farmers. In October 2017, MFVP members and avocado farmers successfully learned from California avocado producers and decided to replicate that fruitful experience for melon farmers by organizing the Myanmar Melon Mission to the US. To get advice on how to proceed, Winrock staff contacted Dr. Tim Coolong, past volunteer and Associate Professor at the University of Georgia-Extension. Dr. Coolong kindly offered to help plan and reach out to his contacts in the US melon industry. Southern Georgia was selected as the primary visit site since this region is the largest producer of watermelons in the US. The visit was planned for mid-June, as this is the prime watermelon harvesting and shipping season, in advance of the July 4^th holiday when US watermelon consumption is at its highest.

Ten representatives participated in the Myanmar Melon Mission to the US. The group included MFVP’s General Secretary, six members of the Myanmar Melon Producer and Exporter Association, two members of the Myanmar Fruit Commodity Center, and one VC-RD staff. The main objectives of the trip were to observe best practices implemented by US melon farmers, from farm to market, highlighting pest and disease control and packaging at the farm level.

Given the participation of members of the Myanmar Melon Producer and Exporter Association, the group was also interested in learning about the role of a producer association. On the first day of the tour, the group visited the National Watermelon Promotion Board. Representatives of the Board presented their organization’s history and structure for the sustainability of the watermelon industry in the US. The group met with the Board’s Communications and Marketing Director and learned about marketing and the importance of increasing consumer demand for watermelon through promotion, research, and educational programs.

The following days were dedicated to field visits to learn about production, shipping, and disease control of melons. The group met with several nationally recognized family farms such as Border Melons East and Lewis Taylor Farms. The group observed the best examples of farm to packaging in Southern Georgia. Their stringent adherence to Food and Drug Administration safety measures was an excellent example to showcase to the Myanmar melon producers.

The group also visited the University of Georgia-Tifton campus. Dr. Bhabesh Dutta, Assistant Professor, and Extension Vegetable Disease Specialist gave a lecture on melon diseases. Dr. Dutta pointed out how critical it is to remain diligent in the pursuit of disease control for all melons grown and shipped.

Two Myanmar melon farmers with the watermelon queen in Georgia

The group concluded their Georgia visit with a trip to the Watermelon Festival in Cordele. Here they were introduced to a traditional, Americana small-town celebration in all its glory! They were treated to live music, a watermelon eating contest, arts and crafts, local food, and free watermelon! They met the festival’s Watermelon Queen and saw hot air balloons and antique cars. Before departing the US, the group will also attend the California Watermelon Festival.

The Myanmar melon group at the University of Georgia

Mr. Zaw Min, Chairman of Financing of the Myanmar Melon Producer and Exporters Association, felt the examples of packaging and shipping would greatly benefit the group when they returned home to Myanmar. The group noted that they learned a lot and are excited to return to Myanmar and begin implementing those practices and disseminating them to their peers.

The Myanmar Melon Mission would not have been possible without Dr. Tim Coolong’s support with planning. Thank you!  

Continuing on with our Field Staff introductions- we are now doing a series on our excellent accountants. They make sure our finances are in order and our day to day operations move smoothly. As is true of most of our field staff, they work closely with colleagues that they have never met, including at HQ in the US, so being able to communicate across time zones, cultures and email is extremely important. It also makes any chance to meet the folks you work with a fun and interesting experience, which Justina got to do when she traveled to Nairobi to receive training on new systems and processes. 

Hi, I am Alamba, Justina Kangyang. Finance & Admin. Manager for the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer Project- Nigeria. I have been on the F2F project for 3 years 5 months now and have 12 years’ experience in development work. It may also interest you to know that Winrock International gave me my first opportunity in development work on the Aids Impact Mitigation (AIM) project for three and a half years. I am an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and with an MBA degree from the Nigerian Defense Academy, a post-graduate diploma from Obafemi Awolowo University and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Accounting from the Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi. My Secondary education was at St. Louis College, Jos and primary education at RCM Primary School, Giring, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.

I am one individual who loves to laugh a lot, watch Hispanic telenovelas and playing phone games.

My work experience over the years: I am currently the Finance and Administrative Manager as stated earlier. Before joining Winrock, I worked as the Awards Coordinator with USAID funded Systems Transformed for Empowered Actions and Enabling Responses for VCs (STEER) project, as the State Finance Officer – Niger with the DFID funded State Accountability and Voice Initiative (SAVI) project, and at the Accountant Health Hub, where I managed funds under the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded Informed Decisions for Actions to Improve Maternal and Newborn Health (IDEAS) project. I developed the budget which won Health Hub the project. Before getting into the development sector I worked at Plateau State Ministry of Science and Technology as a Data Processing Officer and at Crest Hotel & Gardens as Receptionist/Cashier.

Justina, Ibrahim, and Souleyman in Nairobi

With Winrock, I have had the opportunity to experience multi-project reporting on the MARKETS, SAFE, REEP and F2F. I have gained more experience in project closeouts over the years. I love the fact the financial reporting has been revolutionized from excel to QuickBooks and electronic documentation. This new system has made work more interesting and educating. I am one who loves learning new skills and I am excited to say that I have learned to upload wire request and documents on SharePoint, using DocuSign, and how to have effective meetings on Skype. All those remote sessions with the IT team are a wonderful experience and a boost to my IT skills.  I bet my colleagues in finance were as excited as I was at the finance training in Kenya. Putting faces to names I have worked with for years has a good feeling too it. I had a swell time with Souleyman and Ibrahim (both accountants from Guinea) at the KICC, where we viewed Nairobi from the tower. Getting to meet Shawn Cathey and Mike Myers? Wow, that was the bomb and the Nairobi team, Nicodemus, Arthur, and Veronica were all really cool. It was such a nice experience having Nicodemus come over to Nigeria to coach me on QuickBooks and now I am a bundle of knowledge on the software. I look forward to learning more with the advent of the new Regional Controller.

Justina with the other Winrock Accountants Ibrahim and Souleyman

Working with the Nigeria team is homely, with Mike Bassey heading the team it’s joyous. When I lost my grandma in October last year, the support I got was amazing. I am fortunate to have a team like this one and I am glad I am part of this amazing organization. Overall my experience in Winrock is one in a million. I will not forget to mention my ladies back there at HQ, Loretta, and Sherri, are wonderful to work with. It was lovely meeting Sherri during her last visit to Nigeria and I look forward to meeting Loretta, someday in the future.

Ibrahim, Shawn, Justina and Mike in Nairobi

Volunteer with the members of the Association of Mushroom Producers Ashanti (AoMPA)

As I am stepping into my eighties, I recognize nothing more rewarding than being associated with scientific research and being able to reach out and help our society and the international community. The latter became possible for me via the wonderful oyster mushroom.  I am thankful for the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, funded by USAID, for opening up the wide world of serving and helping my fellow human beings in developing communities improve the quality of their food enriched with mushroom protein.

Discussion with the group outside, using the flip chart

This time it was in Kenyasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana, Africa. This was my third assignment in Ghana. The wonderful oyster mushroom is lending itself for cultivation and fruiting against all the odds of unfavorable conditions. The group I trained is a small association of mushroom growers and they are highly motivated and interested, but they are in need of more technical skills when growing crops of this kind. For many years they used narrow neck soda bottles for spawn preparation and small heat resistant plastic bags for the partially composted sawdust as a substrate for cultivation. It works but was rather inefficient, slow and cumbersome. Then they reached out for training.

Volunteer demonstrating the use of a HEPA filter he brought for constructing a Laminar Flow Hood

We adapted the small heat resistant plastic bags of theirs to be spawn bags instead of the soda bottles and worked together to increase their awareness of and ability to use other plant materials readily available in their environments such as banana leaves, and coconut husks. Of course, other kinds of hay, grain plant stalks, and straw are also useful. Specifically, this nation is becoming self-sufficient with rice cultivation making rice stalks their primary alternative as a substrate for mushroom cultivation. The training was mainly held in an outdoor classroom, often moving inside to the group’s mushroom incubation room. So it allowed the participant’s good exercise each time they had to move their chairs back and forth.

The presentations were centered on discussions rather than just a one-way lecture. The group particularly liked using the flip paper chart as it will stay as an open document for them. We enjoyed making a mushroom pie, mushroom pizza, pickled mushroom, and mushroom kababs, using their high tech charcoal oven.

Making and trying the mushroom pizza!

From April 22 to May 8, 2019, I had the pleasure of working on a USAID Farmer-to-Farmer assignment in Nzerekore, Guinea, West Africa.  The implementer for the assignment was Winrock International and this organization took very good care of me.  After departing the capital, Conakry, my driver, translator, and I traveled 1000 kilometers by road to Nzerekore.  It took about 22 hours of mostly bone-jarring roads.

Crossing wooden bridge with F2F driver Bailo

Nzerekore is known as the forested region and produces oil palm (locally called red oil), rubber, cacao, and coffee.  As this was my first time working with oil and rubber crops, I learned a lot about growing the crops and how the oil is processed.  It is used locally for cooking and is highly sought after, especially as Ramadan was approaching.

Discussing proper pesticide use in the field

My assignment was specifically to address pesticide safety issues focusing on the appropriate use of pesticide products and in the correct amount.  The group was enthusiastic and asked many good questions.  All of the farmers used glyphosate as an herbicide and much of my time was used to explain how to use the product most effectively.  I use glyphosate on my farm so I was able to give the farmers first-hand knowledge.

Guinea is a warm and friendly country.  I never felt threatened or uncomfortable.  One evening I ate some food that made me a little ill and I had to take a day off from training. The day I was recuperating, a group of 8 farmers came to my hotel to wish me good health and offered to bring me food for a speedy recovery.  The empathy shown was most welcomed.

Translator, Damba, Interpreting sprayer calibration to farmers

Despite the physical hardships in this country, the eagerness of these farmers to learn and the warmth and hospitality they showed, made this assignment a very satisfying experience.

Oil Palm farm family and F2F volunteer David Ringuette