As a Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) recruiter, my role is to find volunteer agriculture experts that can provide the most positive and measurable impacts to our assignments. I receive the greatest job satisfaction hearing about the volunteers’ experiences and reading the updates from the field staff on impacts. However, it isn’t often that recruiters are able to witness these impacts first-hand. I recently had the opportunity to travel to Myanmar and Nepal to do just that.

In Myanmar, we visited two Farmer-to-Farmer host organizations, which provide assistance in livelihood development for local women in Pindaya and Nyaung Shwe. We then travelled to several villages to meet with the female participants of soap making and business management assignments to see how they were utilizing their training. What struck me was the hospitality shown during each visit. There wasn’t a meeting that didn’t involve green tea and delicious local snacks. We listened to the women’s stories of their opportunities and challenges in starting new businesses, while we munched on rice cakes and fried potatoes. They were excited to share their successes in making new soap products using avocado, tomatoes, lotus pollen, coffee, etc. A few groups eagerly presented their meticulous business management records that were created based on the F2F volunteer’s advice. The women’s groups agreed their ultimate goal was to see sustained profits and business growth. Many of these groups are already well on their way to achieving those goals.

One woman showing off her new soap products

While in Nepal, we traveled to Ramechhap district to meet with youth entrepreneurs who benefited from F2F training on business management. Entrepreneurship seems to come naturally to the people we spoke to. They work hard and have an eye for market opportunities. F2F training helped them build confidence to invest and make informed business decisions. We toured the plant nursery of one of the participants. His enthusiasm was infectious. He is proud of his successes, and the way he has grown his business after applying the techniques he learned in training. He wants to help other young people in his area and surrounding districts to experience the same. The sense of collectiveness in Nepal is inspiring. One can see that even the smallest amount of assistance can and will be replicated to build rural economies.

Binod showing off his plant nursery

In my role, it can be difficult not to view volunteer assignments in terms of flights booked, visas received, travel advances sent, and paperwork completed. It is easy to get lost in the minutiae of recruiting and mobilizing volunteers. Seeing these assignments and their impacts through the lens of a volunteer and the participant has heightened my sense of pride for the Farmer-to-Farmer program, Winrock’s field staff, and the work we do at headquarters.

Fish farming, beyond other agriculture activities, is practiced by youth as a main source of income in Nepal. Gaining skills on improved management practices like water quality management and learning to adjust inputs based on pond fertilization results, can lead to decreases in fish mortality rates, and thus diminish economic losses for youth-led businesses.

F2F volunteer, Dr. Hugh Thomforde earned his PhD in Fisheries Management from Auburn University and was an  Aquaculture Extension Specialist for 17 years at the University of Arkansas. He recently returned from a rewarding assignment in Nepal where he worked with youth from the Sahodar Agriculture Cooperative to improve their fish pond management skills.

“The Secchi disk is a low-tech tool to assist fish producers in making management decisions regarding feeding, fertilizing, and water quality. Members of Sahodar Agricultural Cooperative at Shiktahan Village in southern Nepal were introduced to this device on the first day of training. Ms. Pabita Dewi Chaudary went home and made one from found materials. She used a novel method. She molded cement in a bowl for the bulls-eye base, with an old flag pole set vertically in the middle for the handle. These photos were taken the next morning. We see Shailesh Gurung of Tribhuvan University coaching Ms. Chaudary (foreground) and Ms. Taru as they learn how to use this tool to measure phytoplankton density.”

“The livestock pen shown below was built by Ram Kumar Tharu, Chairperson of the Sahodar Agriculture Cooperative on March 8th, showing quick implementation of one of my recommendations. Animal waste will drop directly into the pond, providing fertilizer to plankton and supplemental feed to carps. It is the first of its kind in the area. The photo came via Shailesh Gurung, who says other cooperative members will monitor the results closely.”

Winrock volunteer Robert (Bob) Albrecht passed away unexpectedly in January. He was an inspiration and will be truly missed.

Bob began his volunteer service with Winrock International in August 2001 with an assignment in Nigeria focused on fisheries design and management. After that first trip, he spent two months working with host, Ife Central Fish Farmers, introducing them to new fish farming techniques. He was accompanied on this assignment and many others by his wife, Mary.

Over the 16 years following that first assignment, Bob and Mary traveled the world to help many host organizations and their families. They worked to improve businesses and communities. No place was too far or too remote to scare them off. The Albrechts went to Nepal to lead trainings on fish processing and waste management; Guinea during the Ebola crises to help poultry farmers with enterprise development and marketing; Central Asian countries such as Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, where they worked with residents on chicken and duck raising businesses; and Russia to share their knowledge of feed production development.

In 2006, Bob returned to Nicaragua for a second time, to work with the National Cattle Commission. “It was heartwarming to see that many of the recommendations that I had made in previous visits were being put into practice,” he observed, “and that the implementation was enabling the farmers and processors to enjoy a higher quality way of life.”

Bob and Mary in Guinea

Guinea staff member Mamadou Thiam described Bob as very sensitive, knowledgeable and caring. He noted that Bob was always aware of his surroundings and connected with the people.

Winrock’s Director of Agriculture & Volunteer Programs DeAnn McGrew recalled that, “Bob and Mary were two of the first Winrock volunteers to Nigeria in 2001. As a new recruiter at that time, I was struck by their humility and their generosity of time, energy and spirit. I am honored and humbled to have worked with them. Bob’s generosity and dedication to others will be sorely missed.”

Bob and Mary touched the lives of hundreds of people in the developing world. In 16 years, they completed 25 assignments with Winrock in 10 different countries for a total of 479 volunteer days. Through hard work and a fierce dedication to volunteerism, Bob and Mary changed lives.

During his lifetime, Bob made countless friends all around the world; many of these friends work for Winrock International. We are grateful for the time and knowledge he donated to our programs over the years, and we will miss Bob’s warm smile, his tireless work ethic, and his zest for life. Though Bob is no longer with us, his spirit lives on in those he touched around the world.

Bob Albrecht in Senegal

It was towards the end of the Monsoon season when I arrived in Nepal in mid-August. This is the time of the year when mountains are in peak green, saturated with season’s moisture, all lives are thriving.

My volunteer assignment in Nepal for the USAID-funded Farmer-to-Farmer Program with Winrock International was to provide a 10-day long training workshop on crop modeling applications to university faculty to add capacity in collegiate research and teaching. My host university was the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science (IAAS) of the Tribhuvan University, located in Sundarbazar of Lamjung District, a remote campus located about 100 km northwest of Kathmandu, but a 6 hour or so journey by car on a winding two-lane mountain road that bumps through many layers of ridges and valleys, sharing traffic with long distance buses, trucks, livestock, and local people carrying fresh animal fodder around their foreheads. Every direction we turned terraced rice paddy fields were in sight, high on the hill slopes or down by the rivers at valley bottoms, as long as the monsoon rain is here, rice is everywhere humans can reach!

My workshop had about 25 participants with backgrounds in soil science, agronomy, horticulture, plant pathology, and agricultural economics. The majority of them work and live locally on the IAAS campus, but a few participants travelled a day from sister campuses to Sundarbazar to attend the workshop. I was glad to see this much interest in crop model applications that include crop growth and yield simulation, crop management effects on yield, and weather variability and climate change on yield dynamics, to list a few. Furthermore, crop models are also very effective teaching tools that help students understand the interactions between plant, soil and atmosphere, connecting principles in crop physiology, biophysics, agro-climatology, and other disciplines. I greatly enjoyed working with my class for their proactivity in discussing their real-world problems and willingness in helping each other when diverse levels of progress appeared at times during the hands-on exercises.

It is a valuable and unforgettable experience to travel and work in Nepal, it is such a beautiful and unique country, and I appreciate the Winrock F2F program and my host university IAAS for making it possible. I hope my class continues to make progress in using the crop model applications, either having a better understanding of how they work, or applying them in their research or teaching.

Dr. Jiang with Tribhuvan University Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science faculty

I usually prefer to find a way to make assignments more active, but here at the Jal Devi Matsya Cooperative in southern Nepal we spent most of the training in a classroom, discussing the complexities of shallow earthen pond ecology, and carp production through organic fertilization and growth of natural foods. It’s a topic I know well, and which the participants were highly motivated to grasp. The level of involvement by female participants was inspiring. Women are involved in the cooperative at all levels, and they sometimes occupied half the seats in the room. A group of three were brave enough to stop our car one morning, close their umbrellas, and squeeze in with me in the back seat. In the classroom both men and women sit in relaxed positions, often cross-legged, in the plastic chairs. They self-segregate, with women on one side of the middle aisle and men on the other. The women were sometimes less vocal but at other times more willing to speak up to let me know when they understood a concept or when they remained uncertain about something. Women immediately gravitated to the microscope during class exercises, and generally became more skilled at mounting slides and getting plankton, or gut contents, gill tissues, or skin scrapings in view and in focus, and understanding what they see. On many afternoons we left the heat of the cramped classroom by 3 or 4 pm to spend an hour visiting participants’ farms. (This is southern Nepal, at 300 feet above sea level, and midday temperatures often exceeds 100 F.) All co-op members manage ponds and many own land, and I believe that puts them among the wealthiest tier of the Banghusari population. Several were able to speak English but Arun Thapa, Winrock International, Nepal Farmer-to-Farmer Project Management and Communications Specialist, knew that I would insist on translation to Nepali for continuity among the group.

Women participants practicing how to view and understand aquaculture slides during the training

I expect the follow-up evaluations of this training will indicate greater impact than many other assignments I’ve conducted for Winrock. Participants demonstrated extraordinary motivation to implement improved practices. During my initial visit to Jal Devi Matsya, I observed 20 Secchi disks in their storehouse. They were dusty, and it soon became clear that their use was not well understood, and as a consequence I made a major effort to reinforce the use of Secchi disks. They are a key low-tech tool for plankton management. Reliable measurement of plankton density allows the pond manager to adjust nutrient loading with fair accuracy. Participants learned to limit manure and feed applications until plankton density, as measured with a Secchi disk, was 20 to 45 cm. This criteria is well-established throughout Asia for semi-intensive carp polyculture in fertilized earthen ponds. Managing ponds so that Secchi readings are within this range generally leads to high fish yields without creating harmful environmental conditions. After explaining and demonstrating pond management techniques the Secchi disks sold out.

On several afternoons I shopped for mangoes, guavas, stubby bananas and pomegranates under the threat of rain. Mounds of fresh ginger in the market piqued my interest. I took advantage of working wifi and learned Nepal is third in world exports of ginger, and also that the US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service lists ginger as generally admissible from any source as long as the roots are free from dirt, so I bought some to bring back as gifts. Arun found me a scrub brush. He was most helpful at every juncture.

Hugh Thomforde managed commercial fish farms in the Philippines and Hawaii. He is retired from the graduate faculty of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries. He has completed 8 Farmer to Farmer assignments for Winrock in Africa and Asia.