As we end the day of celebrating International Women’s Day, we are reminded of the countless women worldwide who work tirelessly to support their families, improve their communities, and build more equitable societies. In rural areas of many developing countries, women face numerous challenges in accessing education, resources, and economic opportunities. However, they are often the driving force behind innovative solutions to these challenges, working together to create positive change. One example is the women of the Bakel Horticulture Producers Union in Eastern Senegal, who are collaborating to improve their postharvest processing techniques and expand their market reach. With the help of the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program and volunteer Pamela Karg, these women are transforming their harvests into high-quality products that are attracting local and international attention. Their story is a powerful reminder of women’s resilience, creativity, and potential of women worldwide and a testament to the importance of investing in women’s success. Read more about their story below. 

In the Senegalese language Pulaar, “Debbo Galle” means a group of women who work together to improve their homes and their communities by raising incomes and expanding women’s access to business. The Bakel Horticulture Producers Union (BAKHPU) draw members from local Debbo Galle to make positive changes in their small community in Eastern Senegal, near the border with Mauritania. A remote location distant from major markets, BAKHPU and its women members were struggling with postharvest losses due to the inability to process fruits and vegetables and thereby increase their shelf life. BAKHPU members were producing 30 tons of vegetables, peppers, onions, and sweet potatoes, but would lose over 30% of the harvest due to poor processing and preserving techniques.  

Seeking a new way to do business, the women sought help from American expert, Pamela Karg, through the West Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program in Senegal. Karg traveled to Senegal in February 2020 to train women fruit and vegetable producers how to best process their products while ensuring flavor, durability, and maintaining food safety. Karg worked hand-in-hand with local members of BAKHPU to demonstrate techniques such as sun drying, development of jams and jellies, and creation of new product lines for the market.Aita Ndao, secretary of a Debbo Galle, reflected on the impact of the training by discussing the group’s plan to develop new and unique products: “‘We continue to see spice advertising on TV and almost every week with a new product, but we are not interested anymore.’ We have learned to make our own spices for our families and our communities.’’ Now their plan, with the help of the Union, is to work with the local agriculture services to find the means to scale up and expand their business. Following Pamela Karg’s training with BAKHPU members, participants are sharing lessons learned throughout their cooperative. Women in Eastern Senegal are learning from one another, growing their businesses, and building stronger communities.  

What was the best part about contributing to Farmer-to-Farmer as a national volunteer in your country/region ?

The best part of my contribution with Farmer-to-Farmer as a local volunteer in my country is the capacity building of the teachers of the vocational Training Center of Nioro du Rip in business marketing. It was interesting for me to be able to help the center to effectively manage their commercial and income generating activities in order to be able to face the budget deficit.

The government of Senegal has decided to make training centers responsible for generating income in order to manage their internal operations. And participating in this training gave me the opportunity to contribute my part in the implementation of this policy.

What was the best part about working with a remote US based volunteer ?

The remote work with the American volunteer (Michelle LaPrise) has greatly contributed to the improvement of the documents produced during the assignment, especially on the development of the business plan model and the questions that the promoter must ask himself on each part that composes the business plan.

I am in charge of following up with micro enterprises in my Zone of Influence and this collaboration with Michelle allowed me to grasp and appropriate other knowledge in the field of business and entrepreneurship. Michelle’s flexibility and willingness to assist was helpful and she has spared no effort in providing information despite the time differences. This further motivated me to provide the training from start to finish and to continue to work with the producers in my area to help them as much as I could without any setbacks.

What did you learn/were there any cultural exchanges?

I learned a lot about the assignment, especially about the financial indicators part of the business plan, the insertion model of the center and marketing techniques. There is a diversity of people within the center from all over Senegal. I met and exchanged with my Diola (one of the ethnic groups in Senegal) relatives and my Serer (another ethnic group)”workers” with whom I teased by taking examples from them during the training. This made the training much easier and with great fun. I was able to understand that this cousinhood is practiced everywhere in Senegal and contributes greatly to the social peace of the country. This mission also allowed me to discover another part of the country with different cultural features.

What lasting impact did this have on you?

This assignment allowed me to reinforce my knowledge on marketing techniques and business plan elaboration. It has allowed me today to reinforce my knowledge on business marketing. There is a lot of materials and information that will be useful to me in my activities with the producers that I supervise. I will definitely become another type of trainer in the future.

What advice would you give or what would you want to tell someone else who is interested in volunteering nationally?

This program allows us not only to develop our skills but also to share our experiences with the beneficiaries for the development of this country. It is a very interesting program. In addition, it allows us to contribute to the capacity building of learners, youth and women in different areas of the country, in order to contribute to sustainable development at the local level.

Why did you choose to volunteer?

I chose to volunteer in the Farmer-to-Farmer program because I am driven by the spirit of sharing and the constant quest for experience and knowledge. Since I am also a microenterprise consultant, I felt it necessary to give my time and in return gain experience for my future career.

April 18^th to the 24^th is National Volunteer Week in the United States which gives us all a chance to stop, reflect, and shine a light on the people and causes that inspire us to serve. As North America awakens to spring and the sense of a renewed optimism, what better time to take a moment and recognize the volunteers who share their time, talent, and treasure to build a more connected global community.

Over a year ago now, the world entered into a profoundly challenging, unforeseen, and tumultuous moment in time. The rise and eventual spread of COVID-19 across the globe profoundly impacted every nation, industry, and way of living. Many people have referred to 2020 as a “dark” or “lost” year. We cannot deny the immense struggle or burden felt by people from every walk of life. And yet, that truth only makes the efforts of Winrock’s volunteers during the past year that much more remarkable.

As airports around the world shut their doors, American volunteers did something amazing- they adapted and continued to support international communities. At Winrock International, technical expert volunteers, primarily through the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program, raised their hands and offered their effort to find a new way to help those in need. Through the use of real-time video-conferencing technology and partnerships with local experts, American volunteers put proof to the quote that “all failure is failure to adapt, all success is successful adaptation.” Demonstrating a remarkable resilience and creativity in the face of difficulty, Winrock volunteers successfully blazed new pathways to connect and collaborate, directly improving the lives of thousands of individuals in rural communities across the world.

One such beneficiary, Mr. Karamo Fofana, a member of a community development group in Guinea, West Africa, noted that: Today, I am 1,000 kilometers from the capital where the Winrock training is being held, the American trainer is in the United States, his Guinean counterpart is in a room with a group in the capital, there are others are all over Guinea joining, learning, and participating; We work as if we were all together in the same room. Really, this is a first and an innovation for us. To this end, we are very grateful to Winrock Farmer-to-Farmer and the U.S. Government, which is sparing no effort to accompany us during this period of COVID19. Thanks to new technologies, we can be everywhere and work together”.

This week, we take a moment to stop and say thank you to the volunteers who brighten the world.  Despite the personal and professional setbacks, we all faced over the past year, so many have lifted their light and showed us that all challenge is really just a hidden opportunity.

Here are some of our volunteers in action over the past year. If you feel a calling to serve in a similar capacity, there are many opportunities listed at www.winrock.org/volunteer.

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. After the harvest, SODEFITEX purchases the cotton at the farm level at a market price agreed upon before the planting season. After deducting a portion of the value of the harvested cotton to reimburse the input credit, SODEFITEX pays the remainder to the farmer.

These cotton farmers belong to the National Federation of Cotton Producers (FNPC) and are organized in village-level cooperatives to interact with SODEFITEX. Approximately 24,000 farmers in different regions of Senegal currently supply cotton to SODEFITEX. By facilitating input credit, offering farming advice, and purchasing the farmers’ cotton at a price set in advance, SODEFITEX offers valuable services that are often lacking in Senegal.

Unfortunately, cotton yields and production in Senegal have fallen in recent years. Adverse weather has contributed to the decline, but another factor has been lack of management and leadership at the farmer cooperative level. Production declines negatively impact both the farmers and SODEFITEX. Since farmers have not produced enough cotton to meet demand, SODEFITEX has had to turn away customers.

In September, Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Andy Lohof spent two weeks in Senegal working with SODEFITEX and FNPC officials on training in management and leadership of farmer cooperatives. The training was held in Tambacounda, site of the main SODEFITEX production facility and the largest city in eastern Senegal, located approximately 400km from the capital city of Dakar.

In interactive training sessions with numerous group exercises, Mr. Lohof addressed questions such as how to convince farmers to participate actively in their cooperatives, how to set cooperative priorities, how to define and delegate cooperative responsibilities, and how to estimate the profitability of different crops to make informed planting decisions. At the end of the workshop, Mr. Lohof discussed how to replicate the training topics to the cooperatives at the village level.

In Senegal, per capita income is only $1,000 (less than 2% of that of the United States). Better management of the cotton cooperatives can result in more cotton for SODEFITEX and better lives for Senegalese farmers and their families.

As we drive into the Horticulture Initiation Center of Ziguinchor, Senegal, I am greeted by a welcome site—students working alongside instructors in a lush, green, and productive garden. Given the number of people employed in agriculture in countries like Senegal, this is a sight far rarer than it should be. As someone who benefited from programs like 4-H as a young person, I know first-hand the long term benefits of investing in agriculture education.

My mission in Senegal was 27 days, working with 3 different agriculture and vocational training institutions to assess their level of work thus far and lay out a 5-year strategic road map to improve their work, their student’s education and employability, and their impact on the surrounding communities. Having spent the past 5 years working with agriculture, life skills, and vocational skills training across Africa, I was excited to see a focused effort by Winrock and Farmer-to-Farmer to invest here as well.

Formal agriculture education originated in the U.S. when the extension service had trouble getting farmers to adopt new practices. Youth, as early adopters of innovations have less to lose, and more to gain by trying out new methods and technologies. The same is true today around the world. For many in the developing world, “farmer” is not a profession or occupation, it is a socio-economic status. You farm because you have nothing else and can do nothing else. However, we see this mindset changing with young people who see farming as a business, a science, and a profession. During one of the visioning activities we conducted, a student identified the opportunity and need he saw for agriculture education this way: “The government and international organizations are always talking about 2 critical issues: youth employment and food security. The education I am receiving now is the solution to both of those.”

Through the SWOT analysis and interviews we conducted with staff, teachers, and students, we saw some of the effects of this negative perception manifested in areas like: recruiting expert teaching staff, sourcing educational resources, accessing adequate funding, and student employment upon graduation. In spite of these challenges, again and again, we saw examples of people going above and beyond to support their schools. Teachers talked about visiting student’s homes when they noticed they seemed to be struggling. Students talked about the goals and aspirations that their education would enable them to achieve. Administrators talked about their dedication to find a way, regardless of a lack of funding and resources.

Utilizing all the findings of surveys, interviews, and analysis, we moved forward with creating, objectives, strategies, and activities that will help the school to achieve their mission. And with missions like “To be a center of excellence, training the next generation of farmers and impacting the skills of current farmers in our community,” who wouldn’t be motivated? The result of all the assessments, group discussions, and planning were strategies that would move the schools and agriculture education forward in their communities and Senegal.

Schools were eager to identify ways that they cannot just improve their work, but network and share with other institutions to create and improve educational resources. They want to find ways to engage with the community at large to both gain support for their students, as well as improve agriculture practices and perceptions around them. They want to train their students to be leaders and change-makers, business people and innovators, as well as farmers.

The dedication and commitment that school managers, teachers, and students exhibited show a glimpse into the future of Senegal’s agriculture sector. By investing in the skills and knowledge of young people, Senegal and the surrounding countries will reap the benefits of a trained and dedicated workforce of agriculture businesspeople, leaders, and decision makers. It was an honor to work with these schools and the amazing Winrock support staff to contribute to the realization of this vision.