As Winrock bids farewell to the Asia Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program, we would like to share the learning and impacts of the program in Bangladesh.

Dr. Janet Henderson summarized her experiences facilitating the Bangladesh F2F Host Learning Event in Dhaka in August 2018. The workshop was designed to summarize key hosts’ successes and innovations, as well as ongoing challenges, and discuss lessons for how to sustain and build on F2F impacts and initiatives; enable hosts to hear and learn from each other and to network; and identify recommendations and lessons to improve effectiveness of future F2F programs and other agricultural development efforts.

A key aspect of this workshop was to learn directly from the hosts, the recipients of volunteer technical assistance, what were the things that worked, didn’t work, and could be improved. Panel members, guest speakers, and breakout groups provided the following lessons learned for a successful F2F program:

• Provide practical, hands-on training; skills and knowledge participant can readily use
• Encourage networking among host institutions and organizations
• Emphasize the economic aspects of agricultural production enterprises, such as marketing
• Be realistic about what a short-term assignment can accomplish; establishing “doable” objectives
• Build the capacity of youth-oriented organizations to support youth directly

Listening to the panel

Guest speakers, panel members, and breakout groups offered the following ways they are sustaining the efforts of F2F volunteers:

• Creating teaching materials, such as posters and flipcharts
• Incorporating information into course syllabi and curricula
• Developing specific courses and modules on training received
• Replicating F2F trainings for others while also developing new trainers
• Maintaining contact with the F2F implementers and volunteers for additional assistance

Winrock has had the honor to implement Farmer-to-Farmer in Bangladesh for 22 years. We wish to thank all of our staff in Bangladesh, our volunteer, and hosts and partners for their commitment to this program and to the development of the Bangladeshi agricultural sector.

Breakout session

Mr. Ihtesham B. Shahjahan, Managing Director, Quality Feeds Limited

We started the feed company in 1995 and then I met Winrock. We were looking for buyers to start our project. Actually, I met with many U.S. organizations, but Winrock was the only organization that met my project goals in many aspects. F2F has helped our farming sector a lot and helped our economy. Had it not been F2F, my company would have never reached the heights that it has today.

Mr. Michael Roy, Advisor, Shalom

We have received assistance from three Winrock F2F volunteers beginning in 2015. The volunteers worked with tribal communities in three areas of Bangladesh on mushroom, banana, and pineapple production. We started with 40 farmers, now we are working with 400. The farmers’ incomes have been raised and are expanding every day. The use of organic fertilizers is an example of growing something without harming anything. The F2F volunteer professors from the U.S. have continued to contact us and provide assistance. The screening of Winrock F2F volunteers for the “right” person made the project successful.

Dr. Wais Kabir, Executive Director, Krishi Gobeshona Foundation

I have seen Winrock primarily focus on making the agribusiness sector more organized. Our collaboration with Winrock encourages cross-country experiences and volunteers in a country like Bangladesh also bring networking opportunities. I believe that the continuation of such services in our country will add value.

It is a bittersweet post today, as we wrap up 5+ years of inspiring and impactful work with Farmer-to-Farmer in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar. In these five years, Winrock volunteers have completed 313 volunteer trips and donated over 6,300 days of time to train and assist 19,184 farmers, teachers, extension agents, entrepreneurs, and youth. This work has resulted in new and improved training and degree programs, increased access to nutritious foods, improved livelihoods, and stronger agriculture sector leaders. And it has built bridges and lasting relationships across borders.

I have seen and heard the impacts on the ground myself, during site visits and focus groups over the last several years. I met livestock farmers in Bangladesh who improved their animal husbandry practices and are now earning more income – which helps them feed their families. I talked with teachers at schools in Bangladesh and Nepal who are newly empowered and now implementing improved pedagogical techniques in their classrooms, to better motivate and prepare students for careers in the agriculture sector. I listened to the aspirations of women and youth in Bangladesh and Myanmar who are now starting new businesses after participating in Farmer-to-Farmer training. And I sat in the homes of Myanmar farmers who are proud to have started to grow – and in some cases, export – high quality agricultural products, previously unaware of the income generating potential of these crops. In all cases, those who participated in Farmer-to-Farmer training have become leaders within their organizations and communities and are sharing information with others. Likewise, I continue to hear how the American volunteers continue to stay in touch with their host organizations and take their Asia Farmer-to-Farmer experiences back to their jobs, community work, and families. Both sides are forever changed, and the ripple effect – on both continents – continues to grow.

Winrock’s Asia Farmer-to-Farmer team has worked tirelessly over the last five years to identify on-the-ground needs, design and implement volunteer assignments, and ensure that our volunteers are well equipped and safe throughout the duration of their work in country. Over the years, we have shared many memories with our staff and volunteers and will truly miss implementing the program in this beautiful region of the world.

We are so grateful to our Asia F2F field staff and to all of our wonderful Asia F2F volunteers! Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for all that you have done and all that we know you will continue to do. It has been a pleasure and an honor to work together.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” –Margaret Mead

We will miss these smiling faces!

August 17, 2018. It was a rainy day in Yangon. Winrock’s F2F staff, from the head office and Asia region, and volunteers hugged each other and said ‘bye’ from their hearts in the Yangon airport lobby. I remembered the day I finished my final examination in University; all the friends were happy as we had faced the biggest challenge of our life, however, we were so sad from deep within our hearts as we had to be apart after 5 years of friendship under the same roof.

After just as many years implementing USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Asia region, mainly in Bangladesh, Myanmar and Nepal, Winrock is going to hand over the program to another implementer at the end of September. We are hugging with great happiness and pride for accomplishing the 5-year program successfully, wishing each other to have bright futures after. However, I felt everyone’s sadness from their eyes for the separation and being away from Winrock’s roof where we had lived for 5 years together. Yes, it was  similar to my last day of university life. It was  bite-the-bullet time. We have to accept the things we cannot change, haven’t we?

Each and every host country in the Asia F2F program conducted a learning event to review the program’s activities we worked hard on, successes we accomplished, impacts we made, challenges we faced and opportunities we have to improve. We discussed those things in the regional workshop conducted from August 15 to 17, 2018 in Taunggyi, the capital of Shan State. Within 5 years, we, Asia F2F program assisted 19,184 people in 3 host countries through 330F2F volunteer assignments in the areas of rural development, agricultural education and training and youth entrepreneurship. We have done a good job for the people and for the host countries, of course including my motherland. We were not just focusing on productivity, but we also considered food safety. We were not just improving the quality of agriculture products, but we also alert on resilience and constantly thought about sustainability. Our focus was not only on agriculture but also on people; how they live their lives, how they work together to improve their livelihood and business.

I tried to shift my emotional thoughts to technical analysis. F2F has reviewed itself, how about me? What did the past 5 years of my life as a Winrocker mean? How much did I improve? Who was I, and who am I right now? I analyzed the baseline and impact of my bio-data.

OMG! I found that Winrock and F2F changed my life a lot. I changed from a vet who only thought about Foot and Mouth Disease all the time to someone who is advocating integration of livestock and crop productions. F2F changed me from a lab technician who was worrying about the bacterial contamination of baby hamster kidney cells in which virus replicated to produce FMD vaccine, into a man who is worrying about the safety of the food for the people of the whole world. I should not show-off that I changed from a specialist to a generalist. However, I have the confidence to say that the F2F program and its volunteers helped broaden my view from the microscope to the globe.

As a Winrocker, F2F impacted not only my vision but also my career life. The knowledge gained from F2F volunteers, field trips, and management work, helped a lot in my other life as a freelance writer.

Working in the field translating from volunteers’ scientific information into farmer’s language was the most pride filled l part of my job in the F2F program. If the technology and science were the gods, F2F and I as an F2F technical officer will be the messengers. Without farmers, there is no world. Without scientific and technical knowledge, the farmers cannot grow. Without the messengers like F2F, the farmers lack  that knowledge.

As a Winrocker, I am very proud to be the one who understands farmers lives, the one who serves  the farmers , the one who has the vision to feed the world, the one who fights for resilience and sustainability of agriculture, and the one who is working hard.

Mr Kofi Annan, who is former secretary general of United Nations and passed away recently, once said, “To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there”.

I was a Winrocker and F2F technical staff. Yeah, I am sure I chose it very very well, five years ago. And it was right. It will be one of the best choices ever in my life.

As the Asia Farmer-2-Farmer Project comes to a close after 5 years, we sent a volunteer to facilitate a Learning Workshop with some our amazing hosts in the country of Bangladesh. Below are some of Dr. Henderson’s Lessons Learned: 

In August 2018, I traveled to Bangladesh to facilitate an in-country workshop as part of the final-year impact and lessons learned analyses for the Asia Farmer to Farmer (F2F) program funded by USAID and Winrock International. I had the opportunity to work with the Bangladesh F2F team located in Dhaka, the capital of the country. Eighty-four participants from different government organizations, universities, national and international NGOs, donor-funded projects, and private sector agribusinesses attended a “Host Learning Workshop.”  The primary objectives of the workshop were to A) summarize successes and innovations, as well as ongoing challenges, and discuss lessons for how to sustain and build on F2F impacts/ initiatives and B) enable participants to hear and learn from each other and to make connections/network with each other. The F2F team did an outstanding job of organizing the host learning workshop; I was very impressed with the dedication and professionalism of Dr. Kabir and his staff; they were a joy to work with! It was obvious that the team had spent many hours preparing for the workshop; their attention to the little details that ensure a successful program was evident. Through my volunteer assignment, I strengthened my ability to serve as a “master of ceremonies” for a workshop; gained a better understanding of Winrock’s F2F Program, including a general overview of the program and the specific work in Bangladesh; and acquired new friends and colleagues.

Facilitating the Panel Discussion

Dr. Henderson surrounded by Asia F2F Team for Bangladesh

We were fortunate to spend two weeks in Nepal working with Professor Binayak Rajbhandri and HICAST University, helping them to enhance their Masters in Agribusiness curriculum that will help develop entrepreneurship skills in their students.  We were both drawn to the program due to our collective experiences in entrepreneurship, higher education, and agribusiness.  Over the two weeks, we met with HICAST students, faculty, and staff as well as local business leaders to discover the gaps in the current curriculum and make recommendations on new courses and content that would help to develop a spirit of entrepreneurship within the institution and student body.

Kate and Frieda consulting with HICAST Agri-business students

Through the assistance of Winrock staff, Chhan Bhattachan and Dr. Vrigu Duwadi, we were able to speak with several students within the program to hear their opinions and discover ways they thought the program could be more applicable to the real-world business environment and not solely on theory delivered via textbook and lecture.  Since most students work full time and appreciate the idea of applied learning their feedback was helpful in understanding the gaps in the current curriculum.

Kate and Frieda final presentation to HICAST senior team

We were also lucky to meet with members of Kathmandu’s agribusiness community to better understand the knowledge and skills students traditionally lack when entering the workforce.  Business owners believe that graduates lack real-world experience and struggle to convert the theories they learn in school to the applications needed in the workplace. They want to see graduates come out with more real-world experience and applicable knowledge.

Kate and Frieda with Dr. Binayak in assignment planning meeting

Lastly, we met with several members of the HICAST faculty to comprehend the courses they taught as well as the delivery method of the content.  We learned that faculty in Nepal universities are not full time, rather they work in full-time jobs and often teach classes on the side.  As a result, they rarely have time to make curriculum changes, spend time on paperwork or facilitate educational opportunities outside the classroom.  These time constraints pose a considerable barrier to implementing a more robust curriculum dependent on experiential learning, which we deemed necessary to create a more entrepreneurial system.

We presented our findings to the HICAST leadership during a lively discussion. We acknowledged that some of our recommendations could be implemented immediately and that some would involve a much “bigger lift”, including cultural change and a new way of doing things throughout the institution. On the more immediate side, we recommended focusing on class discussion, using real-world case studies, and including current technology in the classroom. We also suggested including course content such as leadership, creativity, value chain analysis and a regional business environment class.  All of which would help to develop the critical thinking skills that are necessary for an entrepreneur. On the longer-term side, we recommended the creation of two applied to learn courses, one that would involve students creating and running their own businesses and one that would involve students solving real business issues for real clients.

Dr. Binayak (middle of Kate and Frieda) in group picture with HICAST team

Since Nepal is a relatively risk adverse country when it comes to business, we hope that our recommendations can help students become more comfortable with risk and consider starting their own businesses.  At the center of economic development in any country is the development of new business which creates jobs and in turn puts more money back into the local economy. For the right individual, Nepal has a lot of entrepreneurial opportunity within the agribusiness industry.  We hope that our recommendations can help HICAST develop a curriculum that gives students the skills and confidence to create their own business which will contribute to the development of Nepal’s economy.