It was my pleasure to serve as Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer in Bangladesh from January 26 to February 11, 2018. The assignment was coordinated by Winrock International with sponsorship by USAID, United States Agency for International Aid. The host recipient, BRAC Artificial Insemination (AI) Enterprise,is one part of  Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (BRAC), the largest NGO in the world. BRAC was formed in 1972 following the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 and now serves more than 15 countries in Asia and around the world.

I have been to Bangladesh on two prior F2F assignments with Winrock International in 2016 for Feed the Future Bangladesh and Training of Trainers to help develop improvement in dairy cattle feeding programs aiming to increase milk production and to stimulate economic development. I found the participants who were enrolled in the training programs to be eager to learn new concepts and quick to share their experiences and to inquire how to transfer new knowledge and skills with their farmer family clientele. One of the most impressive attributes of the participants was their level of education, many had attended colleges and universities and held advanced degrees. They were quick to share customs, food and family details with me.

As one would imagine, rice is a food staple in Bangladesh and is commonly eaten at all three meals.. Many fresh vegetables are available as well as fruits like mango and banana. Chicken and fish are most commonly served for lunch and dinner but  mutton is also available. I never went away from a meal not feeling adequately fed and I even had to limit myself from overeating the many high calorie items! It was common to enjoy tea breaks with some snacks in mid-morning and again in mid-afternoon. The evening meal is typically eaten around 8:00 p.m., later than most westerners are used to eating.

The participants were quick to get involved in hands-on demonstrations and skills. Photos don’t do these activities justice, it is hard to convey how everyone wants to be involved and apart of the discussion when all I could capture is a group of heads, arms and backs. Never the less, the participants in this assignment were no less enthusiastic than previous assignment participants.

We spent lots of time in the bull sheds where bulls are housed and fed. Each barn had two managers, two bull handlers and one person is present in the barns at all times. Each of the employees know the bulls well. The bulls are kept clean and as comfortable as the facilities will allow. Bulls are taken to the collection center twice aweek for collection of semen. The semen is checked for quality and is processed and packed in quarter milliliter straws, which is stored in liquid nitrogen and is then distributed throughout the country where professionally trained inseminator technicians inseminate the cows. Successful conception rates of over 75% has been achieved.

I was pleased to observe the professional way the AI Enterprise is managed and its attention to detail, both important when gaining the trust of customers. Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) for semen collection, preservation & packing were reviewed and discussions were held. Likewise SOP’s for developing and managing the bulls was addressed along with establishment of targets for rates of daily gain and nutrient requirements to keep adequate body condition and to maintain bulls without fattening.

In the training sessions we discussed requirements for daily nutritional needs, requirements for dry matter intake and other nutrients for each 100 grams of body weight gain. I had developed a spreadsheet that allows for body weight of bull and grams body weight gain/day. This is further designed to calculate nutrients provided by each feed ingredient and calculates dry matter intake provided by the diet which is then compared to the target weight gains so that evaluations can be made to see if the ration is adequate to meet the targets. This spreadsheet does the calculations that were taught in training instantly, but is important for the participants to understand how these calculations are made and why they are important.

It was fascinating to see how quickly the participants learned and implemented the new practices into their daily schedules. Following each session they would then report what changes they had made in their daily activities. Many entries were made in Facebook and the number of “selfies” taken was too numerous to count!

Each time I complete another assignment I am enriched by having had opportunity to meet new participants who are genuinely interested in learning new skills and developing ways to improve the livelihood of the citizens in their country. Understanding the culture of people around the world and sharing each other’s dreams and aspirations creates better understanding and provides opportunity for improved chances for peace in the world. What better way to do this than to walk with others, share with others and learn from one another.

Bangladesh Field Team reflects on the successful impacts F2F has had on the Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (BASA).

“F2F assistance helped with specialty knowledge related to beekeeping including honey, pollen and royal jelly production. It has been immensely beneficial. The benefits continue as the trained people have trained others.” – AKM Shirajul Islam, Executive Director

Pollen production can be an excellent opportunity for the beekeepers of Bangladesh to maximize profitability and obtain sustainability, however, given the lack of knowledge and skills to produce high-value bee-products including, high-quality honey, the potential benefit of beekeeping as a business has not realized.

Currently, Bangladeshi beekeepers are extracting only honey and wax from their beehives, whereas they can easily collect other high-value bee-products, like pollen. Pollen is an important high-value bee-product for its nutritional and medicinal benefit to human health and more importantly, for its use as nutritious bee feed. Bees feed on honey and pollen during the flowering seasons of nectar-bearing plants, usually eight months out of the year in Bangladesh.  The beekeepers suffer high costs to feed their bees in the flowering offseason. In that period, they use sugar syrup and pollen substitute, which do not provide good nourishment for their bees. As a result, the beekeepers lose a significant number of bees, ultimately affecting their honey production and profitability. When the bees collect nectar from flowers, they bring along pollen trapped on their legs which they use inside the hives to make their food. Pollen can be collected easily using traps at the entrance of beehives. Collection of these pollen grains using a pollen trap can help the beekeepers gain additional benefits from beekeeping which will lead to better sustainability for their business. Beekeepers can use a portion of the collected pollen to feed the bees in the offseason and sell the rest to earn additional income.

Having worked a long time to improve beekeeping and organize beekeepers in order to develop a strong apiary industry, the NGO, Bangladesh Association for Social Advancement (BASA), realized the potential of collecting and processing pollen to help strengthen beekeeping as a profitable business. As part of this initiative, and with the funding support of Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF), BASA worked with the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) volunteer, Michael Embrey, to train 64 BASA staff and their beneficiary beekeepers on the potential, collection and processing of pollen, making pollen traps, and the different uses of pollen. The volunteer brought three different types of pollen trap as samples from the US for demonstration and helped design and build pollen traps applicable for local beehives utilizing local materials and expertise. During the training, the volunteer demonstrated how to collect pollen using a locally made trap and how to process the collected pollen. In addition, the volunteer conducted training on the improved beekeeping, marketing and partnership development for enhancing beekeeping in Bangladesh.

After the F2F training, BASA built 118 pollen traps and distributed them among 118 beekeepers. BASA staff helped the beekeepers install the traps in their beehives and demonstrated the techniques of collection and processing pollen using F2F training information. Because of the endeavor, the beekeepers were able to collect 98 Kg pollen in the recent mustard flowering season from December 2017 to February 2018. The production level ranged from 0.65 to 1.5 Kg per beekeeper. This type of pollen production success is a first for the beekeepers in Bangladesh.  With this success, the beekeepers are relieved from having to pay to feed their bees in the offseason and they are planning to expand their facility of pollen collection as well as explore access to local and export markets with the assistance of BASA in the next season. Mr. Jagadish Chandra Saha, an experienced Beekeeping Expert in the country and Consultant at BASA stated, “Based on F2F training we provided pollen traps and technical support to our beneficiary beekeepers and have had tremendous results from them in producing pollen. We hope to disseminate these techniques to a wider section of beekeepers. We’re confident that this will add a new dimension and help flourish the beekeeping industry in Bangladesh.”

According to Mr. Rezaul Karim, Value Chain Facilitator, BASA, the beekeepers who observed or heard about this success are very excited to install pollen traps in their beehives to collect pollen. BASA is planning to disseminate F2F volunteer techniques of pollen production to their 314 beneficiary beekeepers with special emphasis on young men and women in collaboration with PKSF, two other beekeepers welfare associations: Bangladesh Beekeepers Foundation and Mouchashi Kallyan Samities. Meanwhile, the Government of Bangladesh has emphasized to the Department of Agriculture Extension the desire to introduce beekeeping all over the country in order to increase oilseed production through bee pollination, as well as increase honey production to help increase food security. In this current context, the noble initiative of BASA is expected to expand beekeeping as a profitable and sustainable business and help create entrepreneurial opportunities for young, unemployed, rural men and women.

Neelam Canto-Lugo was nominated by the Myanmar Farmer to Farmer team because she is excellent at highlighting personal capacity and demonstrating how to use, manage and improve it. She has opened the eyes of many trainees about how to prepare for the work place and is dedicated to training while doing it with pleasure. 

Country Director, Ai Kyaw, said: “She is not only a volunteer but also the capacity builder, developing countries need.”

Why did you want to volunteer? 

 I have always enjoyed volunteering. I live a comfortable life and have all my material needs met. There are many in our world who do not have that luxury. Material objects are essential but more important are knowledge and learning. These can transform lives and societies and benefit countless people. I wanted to share the knowledge I possessed to transform and empower others in my own community and around the world. Volunteering for Winrock’s Farmer-to Farmer gave me that opportunity for which I am very grateful.  

We come into this world to do more than make a living; volunteering (for me) is the way to do more. 

 What was the highlight of your most recent volunteer assignment abroad? 

 We conducted two three- day training sessions for members and representatives of Myanmar Livestock Federation (MLF) and Myanmar Flowers, Fruit, and Vegetable Producers and Exporters (MFVP). At the end of the soft skills training, I encouraged the participants an incentive to write effective grant proposals on food and water safety issues and offered $500 each for successful proposals. After just three days of training, fourteen participants submitted proposals.  That was amazing and incredibly rewarding. I was overwhelmed by the participants’ enthusiasm and motivation. I ended up providing four mini-grants instead of three as I had originally planned.  

 What made your Winrock volunteer trip distinctive? 

I was extremely impressed by the enthusiasm of the people who participated in my training. The participants were eager to learn and to put into practice the ideas I had shared with them. The highlight of my Myanmar assignment was the fact that I left Myanmar feeling that I had accomplished more than I had set out to do. I still get emails from my Myanmar students sharing with me the progress of projects that they started because of the training  

As a volunteer for Winrock, I have been rewarded with working with people whose dedication to the mission of Winrock is reflected in the ways they perform their tasks. I must emphasize that the Myanmar team made me feel like a member of their family.  I experienced true hospitality from the Farmer-to Farmer staff and the two hosts and they are now part of my global family. 

How does your experience affect your world view? 

My travel to Myanmar has re-confirmed my faith in the goodness of humankind. I realize that no matter what part of the world we inhabit, kindness, respect, and hospitality are universal values that can enrich our lives as they enriched mine.  In addition, I became aware that the process of teaching is also the process of learning; I gained more than I offered.  

 What advice would you give a new volunteer? 

 I will strongly suggest that a new volunteer must establish connections with his/her trainees.  Share new ideas with the trainees in a way that respects their culture and traditions.  

Be flexible because each culture has its own way of perceiving and interpreting ideas. The Winrock International staff and the country hosts treat you as close family members and look after your every need, so you need to relax and enjoy the tremendous opportunity to share your knowledge and skills with people around the world. 

 How have your assignments made a difference in your own life?/Has your assignment caused you to do anything differently once you returned? 

 I focus much more on human relationships now than on objects. I constantly attempt to dispel misinformation and myths that we have about other countries.  I encourage my college students to develop and practice empathy, acceptance of others, kindness. Most importantly, I promote the spirit of volunteerism in them and provide them volunteer opportunities in my community. 

 Why should people consider volunteering? 

Volunteering allows people to become knowledgeable about other cultures and ways of life.  It forces you to evaluate and analyze your own values and beliefs.  A volunteer teaches, but she also learns about herself.  

How do you feel about the support from Winrock, whether before, during or after your assignments? 

From my first assignment over two years ago, the Winrock team in Arkansas and in the countries I have visited has been extraordinary.  They provide tremendous support to volunteers and maintain outstanding communication before, during, and after the completion of the assignments. The directors in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Nepal phoned me a couple of times every day to ensure that everything was running smoothly.  Every detail, large and small is carefully managed. 

When your friends/family find out that your volunteer assignment abroad, what do they say or ask? 

They want to know about the countries I visit and the people I meet and work with.   

They ask about the types of training I provide. And many wish to learn about  volunteering overseas.   

What do you do when you’re not volunteering? 

I teach Public Speaking and Intercultural Communications at Yuba College in California. Many years back, I developed a speakers’ series titled “Crossing Borders Building Bridges” for college students, faculty, and community members and I organize speakers and events when I am not volunteering. I am a Board member for various civic organizations like the Japanese American Citizens League, JACL, and the Foundation Board of Rotary International.  I am grandmother of two little girls, a 2- year old and a 10- month old and enjoy spending time with them. 

 Does anyone in your life play a role in supporting your involvement? In providing inspiration? 

 My parents inspired us when my siblings and I were growing up in India. They encouraged us to help take care of wounded soldiers returning from battles and babies whose families had been lost due to wars or poverty.   In addition, my junior high school in India had a Civics Day once a month where all students were required to participate in community service.  

 Do you keep in touch with your host organization?

 Yes, I am in constant touch with all my hosts. We communicate regularly by phone, email, or social media. I also conduct fundraisers for them as I did with my Nepal host, Women Development Advocacy Center, and Bangladesh host, Hunger Free World.  In July of this year, I provided voluntary Pedagogy and Curriculum Development training to my host, Dept. of Youth Development, Bangladesh.   

 How do you feel that your volunteer assignment has contributed to create a shared understanding across different cultures through person-to-person interactions? 

 I did not have much knowledge about some of the countries where I volunteered. However, in the process of teaching and interacting with the participants, I was able to share with them many positive ideas about my country.  Many of them didn’t know much about the USA other than what they saw on television. By our interactions during and after the assignment, they were able to get a different picture of America and Americans. On my part, I realized that like my students here, the participants were eager to learn new information and couldn’t wait to put it into practice. The country hosts as well as the Winrock teams in every country I visited had the exact same mission as I, social uplifting and economic empowerment of people.  

What keeps you going back to volunteer? 

 Volunteering gives me a tremendous sense of fulfilment. I have tremendously enjoyed and value the kindness and care shown by everyone I have met on my assignments. I have also gained lifelong friendships in all the places where I have volunteered.

Winrock International invited me to volunteer in Bangladesh as part of the Farmer-to-Farmer Program funded by USAID.  In Bangladesh, the Farmer-to-Farmer program engages skilled American volunteers to provide training and technical assistance to support youth entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector and to strengthen agricultural education and training institutions.  My assignment was to visit local beef cattle fattening farms and locally available feed sources to assess the existing status, practices, problems, and opportunities to improve practices of beef fattening activities in the community, and to conduct two 3-day trainings on improved beef fattening for the host staff and youth group members with a focus on youth entrepreneurship development.  The Rural Reconstruction Foundation (RRF) hosted me, as part of its mission to seek and accomplish “the comprehensive development of underprivileged men, women, youths, and children towards understanding a civil society with respect of full democracy, liberty, equality, justice, peace, and solidarity”.

This was my first Winrock volunteer experience, my first visit to Bangladesh and my first visit to Asia. I enjoyed Bangladesh since the day of my arrival in Dhaka City.  During my assignment, I visited farms, worked with farmers, and participated in the two three-day training for the youth beef fattening group members.  I value and admire the great interest shown by all participants to enhance their beef fattening knowledge and make of it a mechanism to improve their lifestyles. All farmers that we visited were very attentive to our recommendations on how to improve their production system. They wrote the recommendations on animal management, feeding practices, and animal comfort.

Visiting local beef farmers at Jessore District, Bangladesh

The RRF technical staff and the beef farmers showed a great attitude during the 3-day training sections. All participated actively during the training, asking many questions. The RRF staff showed critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, especially during the ration formulation exercises where we used local feed resources to formulate beef cattle diets.

Training RRF technical staff in beef cattle diet formulation using local resources

RRF Beneficiaries – Beef Fattening for Youth Entrepreneurship Development

Professionally, I will share this experience with my colleagues from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Puerto Rico and encourage them to volunteer in this type of activities.  I will also share this experience in the classes that I teach to undergraduate and graduate students of at the University of Puerto Rico. It is very important for the student population to know about how volunteering aboard can improve the livelihoods for so many youths around the world.

In closing, I really appreciate the new relationships I have acquired with people from the RRF and Winrock International. My special and personal gratitude goes to Mr. Badal Golder, Project Manager Specialist, Winrock International, and Mrs. Shahnaz Begum, Assistant Director, RRF, for their friendship and professional support during the activities. This experience, working with Winrock International in Bangladesh, has enriched my life and I feel it has empowered my career.  After 22 years of teaching Animal Sciences, I believe that a higher education degree is not complete without the experience to be a volunteer and have the ability to help and transfer to people the knowledge that we have had the opportunity to acquire during our life.

Recently,  I conducted a Farmer-to-Farmer assignment on Improved Goat Rearing for Youth Entrepreneurship Development with Satkhira Unnayan Sangstha (SUS) in the Tala upazila, Satkhira district of Bangladesh (22.76006 N, 89.25346 E). This assignment was my first trip to Bangladesh.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how well positioned the Bangladeshi goat industry is.  In my travels to other countries where goats are also a ubiquitous feature of the landscape, I was not optimistic about making any real genetic progress because goats freely roamed the countryside, scavenged what they could, and bred indiscriminately.  Often, goats are seen as a resource but one that does not deem any investment.  With little management and no breeding supervision, the prospects of genetic improvement were nil. However, Bangladesh is very, very different.

The goat farming women of SUS after a successful 3 day training

Current Situation

During my Farmer-to-Farmer assignment, I learned that none of the 20 women goat farmers in the one-day refresher course and none of the 30 women goat farmers on the three-day training owned a single buck and that any male kids were castrated young.  All of these women goat farmers (76% of the trainees) rely upon buck centers for insemination services.  The women monitor signs of estrus in their does and take them to the buck centers for mating.  This trip to the buck center can be as much as 8 kilometers roundtrip and cost the women up to a full day away from home.

The buck center that I visited had nine standing bucks; one Jamnapari buck, two Hariana bucks, one Nepalese buck, four Black Bengal bucks, and one buck that they did not know the breed/origin, so they called him the “Australian.”  The service fee ranged from 100 taka ($1 ≈ 80 taka) for the Black Bengal bucks to 400 taka for the Australian.

The owner of the buck center was a former rickshaw driver and with the assistance of a loan from SUS and with the help of his wife started the buck center in 2013.

Training

The training was simple and focused on housing, nutrition, health, reproduction, record keeping, and general management.  Probably the most practical aspects of the sessions were evaluating eye mucous membranes for anemia, conducting body condition score (BCS), and estimating body weight.  Anemia was evaluated using the color under the farmer’s pressed thumbnail. The mucous membranes of the goat’s eye should be the color of the pressed thumbnail. The women farmers practiced BCS using the goat’s lower back and ribs and were taught to make management decisions based upon BCS. Body weight can be easily calculated using a tailor’s tape and the formula, kg = cm/2 – 14. Goats require feeding and medications based on body weight.

Demonstrating how to evaluate anemia using the eye mucous membrane color

Women conducting a body condition scoring exercise

The Dream

Women goat farmers invest much time, effort, and money into the current breeding system and when I realized the importance of the buck centers in the community, I immediately knew that I would love to help these buck centers with the delivery of their product to the women farmers.  The technology of artificial insemination using fresh semen is simple and developing a delivery system of fresh semen to the women goat farmers is even simpler. My dream is that bucks at the buck centers would be collected on twice- or thrice-weekly schedule, fresh semen extended with a skim milk diluent, and chilled to 4°C.  Women goat farmers would call the buck center and arrange an appointment for insemination by cell phone, which all the women farmers have. The buck center would employ a trained inseminator on a bicycle with a cool box to travel to the woman’s farmer for vaginal insemination of the goat. This system would greatly benefit the woman farmer by relieving her of the task and expense of commuting to the buck center and would benefit the buck center by expanding its reach in the community. Women goat farmers in the communities surrounding the buck centers could be given a refresher course in estrus detection, although none is probably needed. The women are already well versed in the signs of estrus. This simplified artificial insemination system delivered to the women farmers would greatly improve the efficiency of the current system and relieve the stress at breeding. An additional side note would be that training on the understanding of inbreeding and its negative consequences is also needed. Genetic improvement can easily be accomplished through the buck centers, but the buck centers and the women farmers should keep breeding records to avoid inbreeding.

A cold box with fresh, cooled semen and a simplified inseminating tool is the dream for any breeder

I was very impressed with the business-like attitude of the women goat farmers in Bangladesh, and I would gladly return to help them and the buck centers become more efficient.  I wish them both the best in their goat rearing endeavors.