Once again, we are coming to an end of an unusual year. Though the ongoing pandemic continued to greatly affect us all, it also provided an opportunity to learn new ways to adapt and find new ways to connect. Even though we were still unable to travel, our volunteers continued to support the Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program through remote and, now, paired assignments.

This year, 56 American volunteers donated their time to conduct 52 virtual volunteer assignments supporting 27 organizations across West Africa, working in partnership with 47 national volunteers from Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Mali, and Senegal. This new “paired” assignment model was a first for Farmer-to-Farmer. The feedback from these types of assignments has been enormously positive, and for that, we are extremely grateful to you! It has been exciting to see these new partnerships form and to hear stories about how these assignments are enriching not only for our host organizations, but also for the US and national volunteers. This new model has been an exciting adaptation to our program, and we are so happy that our family of volunteers has continued to grow.

The generosity of our volunteers never ceases to amaze us. Together, Winrock volunteers donated 785 days to share their skills and knowledge with our hosts in West Africa. Thank you so much for your part!

Please keep an eye out for new volunteer opportunities, which you can find here. We’d love to engage with you again!

Have a Happy Holiday Season and Thank You once again for all you do!

-Winrock’s Volunteer Programs Team

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.

Edie Shannon, who has just returned from Soumbalako, Guinea, shares the following insights: NOT

Central Guinea is a long way from my home in miles, and centuries away in living conditions. I am here to work with a large farm union to help them in organizational development. They know they should be doing more than they are for their farm association members, but don’t know where to begin. (more…)

Todays post is written by Demetria Arvanitis, Director of Winrock’s Volunteer Technical Assistance Team: (more…)