Ms. Neelam Canto-lugo, adjunct professor at Yuba College in California, signed the agreement with EnerGaia on May 12, 2019, to provide financial support that will help develop women contract farmers for household production of spirulina in order to generate new income opportunities and empower women in rural Bangladesh. EnerGaia is a private company focusing on spirulina production, processing, and marketing of fresh spirulina and value-added spirulina products to Thailand, Singapore, and India.

Ms. Canto-lugo came to Bangladesh multiple times in between 2017 and 2018 as a volunteer to help the youth entrepreneurship development initiative of Winrock International’s Asia Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F, 2013-2018) Program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). She conducted training on soft skills development, women empowerment, and curriculum development to build the capacity of the trainers and youth beneficiaries. She was also a recipient of Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteer of the Year Award. 

After the Asia F2F project closed in September 2018, Ms. Canto-lugo kept in touch with the Winrock staff and her past hosts. She traveled to Bangladesh using her own funds to follow-up on the progress of the organizations and their beneficiaries, as well as conducted further training.

During one of these follow-up visits, Ms. Canto-lugo connected with the staff of the USAID Feed the Future Asia Innovative Farmers Activity (AIFA, 2015-2019) project, implemented by Winrock. Through those connections, she met with EnerGaia Bangladesh representatives and visited their spirulina research lab at the Department of Horticulture of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka. She learned about EnerGaia’s initiative to implement spirulina contract farming focused on providing income opportunities for rural women. Impressed with the potential benefits for the rural women, Ms. Canto-lugo promised to provide financial support for EnerGaia.

AIFA’s main mandate is to source, validate and market innovative agricultural technologies and practices for improving the lives of rural farmers. EnerGaia was selected competitively as one of the companies that would have its spirulina production technology tested and validated in Bangladesh’s local context. The AIFA project supported EnerGaia’s expansion into Bangladesh to benefit communities in need of more nutritious food and additional income opportunities. The project also worked to find funding opportunities for EnerGaia to establish a pilot spirulina production village in Khulna to empower women through improved livelihoods. Currently, EnerGaia is establishing a Spirulina Production and Training Center in Batiaghata Upazilla, Khulna District to train and develop spirulina contract farmers.

In May 2019, Ms. Neelam Canto-lugo returned to Bangladesh using her own funds and signed the agreement with EnerGaia to provide financial support. She visited the location of the spirulina production training center and met with the local women. Ms. Canto-lugo’s support will help develop 30 women spirulina contract farmers in Batiaghata under the EnerGaia contract farming model. These women will receive hands-on training from EnerGaia and a system consisting of 20 tanks (for each person) along with other essentials to produce spirulina. EnerGaia will provide technical assistance to the contract farmers for the production and buy back 80% of the production and encourage the rest 20% for family consumption. The initiative could change the lives of the women and their families and empower them with their own sources of income.

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’s in 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 variety of experiences and skills which she then applies on her own farm. 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. 

Being part of the Farmer-to-Farmer team has allowed me to meet great people who have helped improve my knowledge in a variety of areas from agriculture production, income generating activity development, and management and leadership strategy.

With F2F volunteer, Erica Cummings, I learned how to make compost tea which is a very handy method of using manure without going through the whole process of making a compost pile, including the energy and time-consuming practices of watering the pile, turning it, and then spreading the compost in the field.

Erica Cummings demonstrating compost tea

This method does not require many tools. Combining it with a simple drip irrigation system gives amazing results; I have noticed a great improvement in my plants as the compost tea is introduced in the irrigation water, reducing the space and mess associated with more traditional composting.

With F2F volunteer, Julie Albrecht, I learned how to preserve and process fruits and vegetable by listening in on the two trainings she conducted with COFLEC, a local women’s group; I have learned how to process various fruits and vegetables such as tomato, mango, orange, and local fruits

What a delight to make my own mango jams and chutney using mango from my own farm! I have learned many different methods of food processing so I no longer fear the fruit and vegetable going to waste. One of the best aspects of this knowledge is that now I can propose useful activities to do with my friends and sisters when staying on our farm.

With F2F volunteer, Monica Norley, I learned how to make soap based on available agriculture products; this is another very fun and interesting activity to do on our farm with the many different ingredients available to us.

These and many other assignments have taught me a lot about other new topics I knew nothing about: beekeeping, aquaculture, and dairy product processing.

With the new program beginning, I hope to learn more about post-harvest processing, best practices, and innovative value adding techniques.

The F2F for AET program has inspired me to make my farm an informational and training site for agricultural production available to all city dwellers who are interested in agriculture or just in nature.

From all of us here at Winrock, Happy Thanksgiving! 

We were fortunate to spend two weeks in Nepal working with Professor Binayak Rajbhandri and HICAST University, helping them to enhance their Masters in Agribusiness curriculum that will help develop entrepreneurship skills in their students.  We were both drawn to the program due to our collective experiences in entrepreneurship, higher education, and agribusiness.  Over the two weeks, we met with HICAST students, faculty, and staff as well as local business leaders to discover the gaps in the current curriculum and make recommendations on new courses and content that would help to develop a spirit of entrepreneurship within the institution and student body.

Kate and Frieda consulting with HICAST Agri-business students

Through the assistance of Winrock staff, Chhan Bhattachan and Dr. Vrigu Duwadi, we were able to speak with several students within the program to hear their opinions and discover ways they thought the program could be more applicable to the real-world business environment and not solely on theory delivered via textbook and lecture.  Since most students work full time and appreciate the idea of applied learning their feedback was helpful in understanding the gaps in the current curriculum.

Kate and Frieda final presentation to HICAST senior team

We were also lucky to meet with members of Kathmandu’s agribusiness community to better understand the knowledge and skills students traditionally lack when entering the workforce.  Business owners believe that graduates lack real-world experience and struggle to convert the theories they learn in school to the applications needed in the workplace. They want to see graduates come out with more real-world experience and applicable knowledge.

Kate and Frieda with Dr. Binayak in assignment planning meeting

Lastly, we met with several members of the HICAST faculty to comprehend the courses they taught as well as the delivery method of the content.  We learned that faculty in Nepal universities are not full time, rather they work in full-time jobs and often teach classes on the side.  As a result, they rarely have time to make curriculum changes, spend time on paperwork or facilitate educational opportunities outside the classroom.  These time constraints pose a considerable barrier to implementing a more robust curriculum dependent on experiential learning, which we deemed necessary to create a more entrepreneurial system.

We presented our findings to the HICAST leadership during a lively discussion. We acknowledged that some of our recommendations could be implemented immediately and that some would involve a much “bigger lift”, including cultural change and a new way of doing things throughout the institution. On the more immediate side, we recommended focusing on class discussion, using real-world case studies, and including current technology in the classroom. We also suggested including course content such as leadership, creativity, value chain analysis and a regional business environment class.  All of which would help to develop the critical thinking skills that are necessary for an entrepreneur. On the longer-term side, we recommended the creation of two applied to learn courses, one that would involve students creating and running their own businesses and one that would involve students solving real business issues for real clients.

Dr. Binayak (middle of Kate and Frieda) in group picture with HICAST team

Since Nepal is a relatively risk adverse country when it comes to business, we hope that our recommendations can help students become more comfortable with risk and consider starting their own businesses.  At the center of economic development in any country is the development of new business which creates jobs and in turn puts more money back into the local economy. For the right individual, Nepal has a lot of entrepreneurial opportunity within the agribusiness industry.  We hope that our recommendations can help HICAST develop a curriculum that gives students the skills and confidence to create their own business which will contribute to the development of Nepal’s economy.

PRAN/PABL (PRAN Agro Business Limited), a food processor and agribusiness company decided to grow cassava crop for its industrial expansion and needed a volunteer to train the young women entrepreneurs involved in this project. This sounded familiar me, as I was introduced to the production and processing of cassava tubers into gari and tapioca by my mother’s family as a teenager. The transformation of cassava tubers was my mom’s main business for more than sixty years and had enabled her to pay my tuitions. Cassava goods were once staple foods for more than eight hundred million people in Africa, where they were processed and sold by women to make a living till the early 1980s. Thereafter, the disease prone and low yield cassava varieties that had been introduced from South America and cultivated in Africa since the fourteen century were wiped out. Therefore, the improved, disease tolerant and high yield varieties needed to be reinstated in Africa, including Benin (my country of origin). As the Director of Crop Protection Service, I had assumed this task (using multisource funding), essential for the restoration of the agricultural food chain and specifically important to the participation of Beninese women in economic development.

The aim of this assignment was to train Bangladesh women and youths to grow cassava that will be purchased by PRAN/PABL. The tuber part of the plant will be used to make gluten-free starch designated to be transformed into either glucose or flour and used in making juice or in baking industries. Furthermore, starch was vital for the clothing industry that brings in twenty percent (20%) of Bangladesh’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). So far ninety percent (90%) of this needed starch is imported from Thailand and PRAN/PABL had decided to produce it in situ. Thus, the company installed a starch producing plant, is on its way to building the second one and is pushing to scale up the production of cassava tubers. Fallow and empty lands not suitable to grow other domestic crops, such as rice, are being gradually gradually with cassava crop.

Cassava is not a staple in Bangladesh and may not have been cultivated had not PRAN decided to use it as an industrial crop. PRAN funds the producers by providing the input (seedlings, fertilizer, pesticides and technical assistance) and thereafter purchases the cassava when the crop is mature. The tubers were transformed into starch, glucose and flour. The stems are cut and distributed to all potential producers under the control of PRAN technical staff. Waste derived from tuber peels, chaff from starch processing and leaves cut from the plant are recycled and used to either make organic fertilizer or chicken feed for their chicken farms. It could also further be used to make biogas for cooking and ethanol for cars and buses. All part of cassava plant is put to use in industrial development.

Training on Improved Cassava Production for Youth Entrepreneurship Development was held in Modhupur, Tangail from 11/17 to 11/25/2017 and for four hours on 11/28/2017, at PRAN Headquarter in Dhaka. The first training session involved 32 participants (with 3 women) made of PRAN field staffs and producers-head of cassava grower cooperatives. The Dhaka session was for PRAN/PABL personnel (forty in total) only and was part of their monthly meeting schedule. They were trained in Dhaka using one of the training modules designated to produce semi-mechanized cassava crop. Topics such as the need to use cover crops to lower the cost of weeding control and the introduction of new improved varieties of cassava had been debated after the training session.

Cassava is becoming the next best thing designated to change Bangladesh farmers’ lives by boosting their income under this special scheme implemented by PRAN. As for now, cassava farming is at low-cost and more profitable because it requires less irrigation, fertilizers and insecticides. It is also less affected by natural calamities. PRAN wants to keep it that way and had organized this training for both farmers-head of cooperative and its staff to avoid the mistake made by Thailand. Industrial production of cassava had become Thailand’s main export and domestic substance since 2009 until the invasion of cassava mealybug and spider mite in 2014. This country is actually losing more than twenty percent of tuber produced and has less suitable seedlings for subsequent production. Cassava production is so secured under PRAN watch that numerous women have decided to join the program.

My main activities were to:

1. Visit existing farms to assess the status of cassava production, agricultural practices, problems and potential pests

1. Train for four days PRAN staff involved in the cassava outreach program on improved cassava production techniques

1. Train for two days cassava producers-heads of cooperatives assisted by PRAN/PABL on improved method to produce cassava crop.

1. Underline production techniques aiming to increase the quantity and quality of tubers produced and increase the yield of extracted starch.

1. Develop training modules on improved cassava production to be used by PABL and its staff for further trainings

1. Emphasis the importance of cassava crop pests and diseases and set up a surveillance unit

I was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and willingness to learn displayed by the trainees. Cassava is a cash crop that could be grown with no major problems and then easily purchased by PRAN. In addition, tuber collection from farms to the factory was ensured by PRAN. The producers take home more than 7000 Taka/acre. This earnings was predominantly used to acquire new land to increase cassava production. Their concerns about harvesting, weed control and flooding of the field were resolved by recommending: a) a semi-mechanized devise to uproot these tubers easily, b) installation of a suitable cover crop and c) plant cassava on ridges.

I am confident Bangladesh will produce the needed starch for its industry.

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.