From Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Richard (Dick) Edwards on his recent assignment in Senegal:

“I have learned a lot about the culture here in Senegal, and while some things are different, I have also experienced many of the same things in other countries.

I developed and presented a workshop on marketing which covered the basic four P’s; product, place, price, and promotion. We met Monday through Friday and had about 25 participants who were primarily small business owners. They were primarily women who have taken the initiative to start their own home based businesses. One is producing syrups with flavoring from native plants. Buyers then add water to base and enjoy a refreshing drink which also, as the marketing flyers pronounce, has several healthy advantages. Another has a small bakery, still another has a catering service and there was an owner of a small on line service offering several food related products.

I had the opportunity to visit several of the participants businesses prior to the workshop and was able to revisit their shops after the workshop and I was delighted see that they had already implemented many of the concepts discussed during the training.

The work was remarkably rewarding in that it allowed me to see the entrepreneurial spirit exhibited by the participants and provided me an opportunity to learn and experience the cultural practices of a country that I had never before visited.”

Today’s blog post comes from Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Ilan Bar, who just returned from his assignment in Senegal:

“It was a pleasure and very satisfying assignment to train teachers and their students on drip irrigation at the Horticulture Initiation Center of Saint Louis, Senegal, a public education institution that provides training and know-how to youth, professionals and smallholder farmers in the field of fruit and vegetable production, floriculture and entrepreneurship.

The devotion and commitment of the faculty staff and management, as well as of the students, to learn and improve was very encouraging and created a very pleasant and hopeful atmosphere for a better future.

In spite of daily hardships and obstacles, the participation of all attendees was exiting, to the degree that even on a holiday, we had a full house!

I believe these guys deserve any help they can get. Looking forward to stay in touch!”

–Ilan Bar

The photos below show Ilan and training participants in action:

Meet the F2F Team in Senegal

The Senegal team is the newest member of Winrock’s Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) family! The team received its first volunteer as part of the USAID-funded F2F for Agriculture Education and Training (F2F for AET) Program in February, and since then, they have kept busy conducting baseline surveys, developing partnerships, designing volunteer assignments with local AET hosts, and welcoming volunteers to Senegal.

We asked each of the staff to share their thoughts about the F2F program and some background on themselves:

Mama Ndeye Toure, Country Director

Mama joined Winrock in June 2014, but she has known about Winrock for many years, as she is a member of the Africa Women Leaders in Agriculture and Environment (AWLAE) network that Winrock helped form and strengthen in the 1980s. She received her Master’sin International Agriculture Education from the University of Arizona and spent many years working for the Senegalese Ministry of Agriculture and for the Food and Agriculture Organization. Mama enjoys working with volunteers because she learns from their experiences variety of experiences and skills. She admires the volunteers’ dedication and motivation to share their knowledge with others. In her opinion, the F2F program addresses numerous development issues within the wider agricultural sector that benefits Senegal. On the weekends, Mama likes to go to her farm, where she keeps fruit trees, poultry, and livestock.

Pape Magatte Tall, Program Officer

Pape began working for Winrock in October 2014. He has a degree in Agriculture and certificates in vocational education, focusing on horticultural techniques and management. Under F2F, he writes scope of works for the volunteers, accompanies the volunteers on their assignments, and builds relationship with the hosts. Pape likes that F2F helps poor and disadvantaged people and provides them opportunities to change their life conditions. He strongly believes that by focusing on agriculture education and training, the capacity of Senegal’s people and organizations will increase. Pape enjoys the technical exchange that takes place with the volunteers. In his free time, Pape goes to his farm, where he grows ground nuts and maize, and enjoys jogging.

Bara Ndaye, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist

Bara is in charge of M&E tasks for F2F in Senegal, including tracking progress against indicators, collecting baseline data with hosts, and supporting scope of work development. He joined Winrock in October 2014, after studying project management and planning and beginning his M&E career with the Ministry of Finance. He says that 70% of Senegal’s population are involved in agriculture, and therefore it is important to gain more experience in order to feed the population; this is what F2F provides to Senegalese farmers. Bara enjoyed visiting poultry farms with a volunteer; he was able to learn about the dynamic poultry sector. On the weekends, Bara likes to visit his family in Saint Louis or watch soccer matches.

Adama Séne, Program Assistant

As a Program Assistant, Adama helps the project with many important tasks, including translation and logistics. She also attends technical meetings and accompanies the volunteers to their assignments. She enjoys meeting the volunteers. Each experience has been unique. Adama says that 6 out of 10 jobs in Senegal are not filled because people lack the right skills; therefore she thinks that education and training are important for the development of Senegal. In her free time, Adama likes to go out salsa dancing. She also grows vegetables and aromatic plants in her garden.

Demba Sidy Ba, Financial Officer

Demba has been working for Winrock since September 2009, starting as an accountant under a previous project in Senegal. Demba is in charge of all accounting functions, payroll, procurement, and travel logistics. He participated in the F2F start-up in Senegal, which was a memorable experience that allowed him to use the skills developed during his tenure with Winrock. Demba thinks that F2F is important because the training provided to farmers and organizations will bring results that will benefit his country. Demba likes to spend the weekends with his family.

Ndiamé Séne, Driver

Séne has the very important job of driving our volunteers to locations all over Senegal. He has been working for Winrock since January 2015. He learned English at a university in Dakar and is looking forward to continuing to improve his English skills by engaging with the volunteers. He has a piece of land and hopes to grow crops and poultry. When volunteer Jonathan Moyle visited Senegal for a poultry production assignment, Séne was able to learn new skills to apply to his own farm. He believes that the F2F project is important to farmers, and that it is wonderful for Senegalese people to receive the technical assistance. In his free time, he likes to jog and watch TV.

Youssouph Sane, Driver

Sane is also a driver for F2F and accompanies the volunteers on their travels throughout Senegal. He has been working for Winrock since January 2015. Sane learned English in high school, and after that he continued his English studies by attending language lessons. He learned about Winrock by coincidence: he was near the office and saw the office’s sign and decided to stop by to see if there were any openings. Sane believes that F2F can help farmers in Senegal gain more knowledge. He enjoys sharing his experiences with volunteers. In his free time, Sane likes to jog, spend time with his family, and watch TV.

The whole team is eager to welcome all of the future F2F volunteers in Senegal!

Aquaculture specialist Joe Sullivan returned from his Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer assignment in Senegal last week. On the plane trip back, Dr. Sullivan met President Jimmy Carter and told him about his F2F assignment, as he describes below:

“I met President Jimmy Carter on the plane on my JFK to Atlanta leg coming home from a volunteer Farmer-to-Farmer assignment in Senegal this past Sunday. He noticed my Winrock hat and asked if I worked for the organization. I said ‘Yes,’ and explained that I was just getting back from a volunteer assignment in Senegal. He apparently is familiar with Winrock and likes what the organization does. He was walking through the entire economy cabin shaking hands with everyone, despite his own seat being in first class. He is a really classy, though low-key and warm guy.

We all like to gauge our success on these projects by how they seem to impact our hosts and the people around them, and we should, but once in a while we meet people who also want to change things, whose values are like ours for making a difference, and who do something as simple as catch sight of our Winrock hat, and what we do comes to their minds as well.

So, be sure to ‘Wear your hat!’

We are continuously inspired by the excellent technical work and the lasting people-to-people connections forged by Winrock’s Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers. What better day to celebrate their efforts than today, National Agriculture Day!

Since 1991, Winrock volunteers have completed more than 5,400 assignments in 56 countries. Each of our volunteers has played an important part in strengthening international agriculture, and essentially, helping to feed the world.

Special thanks to the 16 American volunteers who are currently on assignment today! These brilliant and dedicated women and men are sharing their expertise to:

• develop new, demand-driven courses at Guinea’s agriculture university
• train trainers and service providers to support youth entrepreneurship in Bangladesh and Nepal
• strengthen farmer and fishers associations in Myanmar
• develop new agriculture curriculum in Bangladesh
• improve technical skills and service delivery to support dairy and goat production in Nepal
• train lead farmers on drip irrigation in Senegal
• introduce improved teaching methods for university-level agriculture courses in Mali

Check out our Facebook page to see photos of recent volunteers in action!https://www.facebook.com/pages/Winrock-Volunteers/267409859955100

Happy Agriculture Day!