Volunteer Posts
The Greatest Value for a Winrock Volunteer
April 18, 2018
Preparing for a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, my third in Mali and twelfth overall, created a sense of excitement and anticipation. Bara Kassambara, Winrock Country Director for Mali, is a F2F professional who makes every aspect of an assignment go smoothly for volunteers. Over time, Bara and I have become very good friends, beginning with my first […]
Farming as a Banking System
April 10, 2018
On February 9, 2018, Farmer to Farmer (F2F) volunteer, Teresa Morris, arrived in Abuja, Nigeria on her first visit to the country and her first F2F assignment; to provide a training-the-trainer workshop in Developing Curricula and Training of Trainers in Farm Administration and Management to Nehemiah Foundation International. Dr. Morris is a soil scientist who […]
Providing Valuable Skills to the Next Generation of Farmers
March 20, 2018
March 20, 2018 marks National Agriculture Day, a day to celebrate the abundance provided by American agriculture. Under the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer program, U.S. citizens have generously volunteered their time and shared their agricultural expertise in development activities around the globe. Their experiences have helped farmers, extension agents, and university professors in developing countries fight hunger and poverty and […]
March Volunteer of the Month
March 19, 2018
Dr. Herring was nominated by the Myanmar team because of his ability to quickly absorb the local situation in the field and adapt those observations into an informative presentation and training. He got along well with all the farmers he met, was well prepared and focused on the work. “Dr. Herring’s assignment and shared information […]
Rippling Outward
March 8, 2018
In the summer of 2017, Awakening Nigeria for Agricultural and Agro-Allied International (ANAAI) participated in training held by Winrock volunteer Anna Snider, working with Farmer to Farmer’s Agricultural Education and Training Program (AET). The training focused on homestead vegetable gardening using sacks and containers to help farmers, and others currently not engaged in farming, to embrace […]
February Volunteer of the Month
February 21, 2018
On August 21, 2017, the team from the Thunderbird School of Global Management Emerging Markets Laboratory (TEM-Lab), Craig Pearson, Fungai Mandaza and Rachel A, arrived in Nigeria to work with the Center for Entrepreneurship Development and Vocational Studies (CEDVS), Federal Polytechnic Ado-Ekiti. The trio went to support CEDVS’ quest to establish and manage a business […]
January Volunteer of the Month
January 16, 2018
In December 2017, Monica Norley implemented her 3rd assignment in Senegal, training two groups of women in soap production.
Impact Beyond Expectations – Myanmar Pig Farmer’s AI Startup
January 4, 2018
Demand for pork is secondary to chickens in Myanmar for meat consumption. Although the swine industry has the potential to improve, several factors— including feed, diseases, and poor genetics— have been identified as limits to mass scale pig production in the country. Individual pig farmers in Mandalay requested Farmer-to-Farmer’s technical assistance to conduct a training […]
Agroecology in Africa: Focus on Soil Stewardship in Senegal
December 27, 2017
This week’s blog comes from Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer, Rachel Schattman, a Produce Safety Specialist with the University of Vermont and a post-doctoral fellow with the USDA Northeast Climate Hub. She has worked in agriculture for 19 years, either as a farm worker, farm owner or extension specialist. I have been working in agriculture, either as […]
Strengthening Cotton Cooperatives in Senegal
December 20, 2017
The Senegalese textile company SODEFITEX plays an important role in rural development. Founded in 1974, the company sources cotton from smallholder farmers in Senegal to produce textiles. SODEFITEX collaborates with a Senegalese financial institution to offer farmers inputs (cotton seeds and fertilizer) on credit and provides advice to farmers on how to improve cotton yield. […]