Volunteer Posts
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. […]
December Volunteer of the Month
December 15, 2017
Winrock International’s Nigeria Farmer-to-Farmer staff have nominated Dr. Onesimus Otieno as the December Volunteer of the Month because he is committed and passionate about what he does. Country Director, Mike Bassey, stated that “he is a great student as well as teacher trainer who has a good understanding of his audience and knows how to […]
Hawaii Farmer Shares His Knowledge With Citrus Farmers in Myanmar
December 12, 2017
This week’s blog comes from Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer, David Ringuette. Mr. Ringuette owns and manages Serikaku Farm Ltd., a 15-acre family farm located in Hawaii which produces cacao, banana, lychee, breadfruit, and star fruit. Mr. Ringuette is a retired agriculture coordinator and professor who taught IPM, pesticide safety, plant propagation, irrigation, and soil management. Since retiring, Mr. Ringuette […]
International Volunteer Day
December 5, 2017
Today we celebrate Winrock volunteers who have dedicated their expertise, time, and hearts to helping people in need around the world. Volunteers for Winrock International aren’t just lending manual labor – they’re lending their expertise. Volunteers strengthen service providers to conduct agriculture training programs in Africa and teach best practices to farmers in Asia. Volunteers […]
Monitoring and Evaluation Helps Tell a Project’s Story
November 28, 2017
I recently spent four months as a long-term volunteer working with Winrock’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Team in Myanmar. This was my first time working as a volunteer for Winrock International. From the start, I was impressed at how well organized Winrock’s team was with logistics and making sure everything was smooth throughout the […]
Happy Thanksgiving!
November 22, 2017
Happy Thanksgiving! Winrock’s Agriculture & Volunteer Programs team is thankful for so many things this year: 160 volunteers donated more than 29,000 hours of their time and $248,200 in additional resources for international assignments in 2017 (so far). These volunteers trained and assisted more than 10,500 people and 147 host organizations in 11 countries! 117 agriculture […]
November Volunteer of the Month
November 15, 2017
Our Nepal Farmer-to-Farmer staff have nominated, Dr. William (Bill) Foxworth, as the November Volunteer of the Month, because he is a “highly skillful, flexible volunteer and adjusted his hands-on training sessions for the assignment to best utilize locally available equipment and resources in Nepal.” Dr. Foxworth is the reproductive physiologist at the International Goat Research Center at Texas […]
Navigating Nepali Roads to Reach Tomato Growers
October 30, 2017
My volunteer assignment was to conduct trainings on Increased Safe Tomato Production through Integrated Pest Management (IPM). The training sessions were held in four village development committees (VDCs) in the Kaski region of Nepal, outside the city of Pokhara. The host organization was Dhikurpokhari Community Development Organization (DCDO). We conducted a 2-day training session in […]
Bangladesh and Wisconsin–Worlds Apart, Yet Farmers Experience Similar Challenges
October 20, 2017
This week’s blog comes from, Dr. James Anderson III, Assistant Professor of Community & Economic Development at the University of Wisconsin- Extension. In May 2017, I had the privilege of traveling to Bangladesh for my first international volunteer assignment through Winrock International. My assignment was to work with the Bangladesh Department of Youth Development to […]