Farmer to Farmer

Updated on Dec 12, 2023

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The Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) Program promotes sustainable economic growth, food security and agricultural development worldwide. Volunteer technical assistance from US farmers, agribusinesses, cooperatives, and universities helps developing countries improve productivity, access new markets, build local capacity, combat climate change and conserve environmental and natural resources.

F2F volunteers work with farmers, producer groups, rural businesses and service providers to develop local capacity necessary to increase food production and rural incomes, expand economic growth, and address environmental and natural resource management challenges. This people-to-people exchange promotes international goodwill, understanding of US foreign assistance programs and private involvement in development activities.

The F2F Program is funded by the US Agency for International Development through the US Farm Bill to assist developing countries, middle-income countries, emerging markets, sub-Saharan African countries, and Caribbean Basin countries to increase farm production and incomes.

History

The Farmer-to-Farmer Worldwide Program was initially authorized by Congress in the 1985 Farm Bill and funded through Title V of Public Law 480. Congress authorized the current FY2013-2018 phase of the program, designating it the "John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer Program." John Ogonowski was the pilot of one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; the project was renamed the John Ogonowski Farmer to Farmer Program to honor his extensive work with immigrant Southeast Asian farmers using his land in rural Massachusetts. Former Congressman Bereuter was the initial sponsor of the program.

The Farmer-to-Farmer program celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2015.

More than 16,000 volunteers have served since 1985.

Volunteers

Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers are American Farmers and Agriculture Experts dedicated to improving our world. Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers donate their time and expertise to provide technical skills to farmers in the developing world. Volunteers often partake on short term assignments focusing on specific tasks to yield high impact. Farmer-to-Farmer Volunteers can be found across the globe, from Zambia to Bangladesh, El Salvador to Bulgaria working on projects from marketing management to beekeeping, produce packaging to governance. To learn more about Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers and read their stories, click here. If you are interested in volunteering, click here.

Results

Program evaluations have consistently found that the program provides high-quality services from volunteers, leveraging more than $34 million worth of volunteer time contributions to development efforts. Approximately 1.2 million people have been beneficiaries of the F2F Program and received direct, hands-on training from expert volunteers. Since program initiation, more than 16,000 volunteer assignments have been completed in 110 countries. In FY2016, approximately 42 percent of beneficiaries were women and 30 percent of volunteers were women.

Current program

USAID has awarded cooperative agreements to six organizations for implementation of the core F2F volunteer programs for international agricultural development for fiscal years 2014 – 2018. The program will extend services to 26 core countries, providing over 3,000 volunteer technical assistance assignments averaging three weeks each. An additional Special Program Support project will fund volunteer activities with new implementing organizations and special activities. The six program implementing organizations will work closely with overseas USAID Missions and local partner organizations, supporting a variety of development programs aimed at reducing poverty and stimulating sustainable and broad-based economic growth. The core program agreements allow USAID country programs to provide additional funding for agricultural development projects using F2F volunteers.

Implementors

Each F2F award is global in nature but implements core country programs in a specific region or technical area

Asia – Winrock International

Caribbean Basin – Partners of the Americas

East Africa – Catholic Relief Services

Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia – ACDI/VOCA

Middle East/North Africa – Land O’Lakes International Development

Southern Africa – Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA)

West Africa – ACDI/VOCA

Agricultural Education and Training – Winrock International

Special Program Support Project – Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance

F2F emphasizes achieving economic impact and measurable results by concentrating volunteer assignments in specific geographic areas, commodities programs and service sectors. Programs go beyond simply placing volunteers on an individual basis and focus on developing specific market chains for which overall impact can be evaluated. Programs build institutions and transfer technology and management expertise to link smallholder farmers with markets that make use of comparative advantages in production, processing and marketing. Volunteers typically work with medium and small agro-enterprises, cooperatives, individual producers, agricultural extension and research agencies, and financial institutions.

Major areas of program focus are: horticulture, dairy and livestock, staple food crops, producer organization development, financial services, marketing and processing, agricultural education and training, and natural resources management.

Farmer-to-Farmer includes a Special Program Support Project (SPSP) to test innovative approaches for use of volunteers, draw from non-traditional volunteer sources, develop capacity of non-traditional volunteer organizations, and address niche agricultural sector problems. Special projects will be implemented by voluntary technical assistance organizations as sub-awards.

Special Program Support Project

F2F Special Program Support Project (SPSP) provides opportunities for new partners to participate in the F2F program while offering USAID Missions another mechanism for integrating volunteer technical assistance into their activities.

The Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) manages SPSP. VEGA builds the capacity and encourages the participation of new F2F implementers. VEGA mentors new organizations, beginning with support during the grant-writing process, and helps organizations meet USAID program, activity, and reporting requirements. VEGA also supports learning in the wider F2F community, gathering and disseminating knowledge to strengthen the overall program.

Accomplishments of F2F SPSP to date:

Launched four Program Development Projects (PDPs) in Colombia, Ethiopia/Uganda, Jamaica and Ghana. These programs last between 3-4 years and are valued at $700,000 to $3 million.

Awarded 13 small grants in Bangladesh, El Salvador, Haiti (3), India, Kosovo, Madagascar, Mali (2), Morocco and Zambia (2).

Deployed 232 volunteers through SPSP grants. These volunteers have trained 15,084 people and strengthened 119 host institutions.

Knowledge management

The SPSP program gathers and disseminates success stories, best practices, and lessons learned from all F2F implementers and SPSP sub-grant implementers. VEGA works with partners to promote the F2F program to the American public; to continue to evolve best practices in agricultural volunteer programming; and to build the capacity of new organizations involved in the F2F program. VEGA also manages knowledge sharing through the F2F web portal at www.farmer-to-farmer.org. The site is used to disseminate F2F success stories and lessons learned among current implementing partners, volunteers, beneficiaries, and USAID.

Capacity Development

VEGA builds the capacity of new organizations and encourages F2F participation of minority-serving organizations and institutions, small NGOs, diaspora organizations, specialized technical networks, and universities. To build the capacity of organizations, VEGA conducts capacity development activities, including sub-grants, and also maintains the Farmer-to-Farmer portal.

Sub-Grant Management

Sub-grants for the SPSP include Program Development Projects (PDP) and small grants. Each PDP is a full F2F program in a specific country or thematic area that helps to develop the capacity of the implementing organization to carry out larger-scale volunteer programs. The small grants fund activities to address country specific or thematic areas, specific volunteer target groups, and/or innovative ways of programming volunteers. Small grants involve organizations not currently implementing core F2F cooperative agreements or SPSP PDPs. Program oversight, mentoring, training, and program visits provided by VEGA ensure that sub-grant implementers are successful and that the F2F brand is maintained.

Eligible countries

The 2013 USAID RFA designated the following countries as eligible for Farmer to Farmer Programs:

Caribbean Basin: Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines

East Africa: Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Congo, Comoros, Djibouti, Seychelles

Southern Africa: Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland

West Africa: Malia, Ghana, Liberia, DRC, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo

Asia: Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Mongolia, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam

Middle East and North Africa: West Bank and Gaza, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco

Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia: Kosovo, Serbia, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Albania, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan

Latin America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru

Caribbean Basin

Haiti Coffee Production & Marketing: While working with host Makouti Agro Enterprise, veteran F2F volunteer Myriam Kaplan-Pasternak realized the potential for high-quality Haitian coffee in the international market. Kaplan-Pasternak recruited U.S. businessman and Haitian native Yves Gourdet to travel as an F2F volunteer to assess coffee production in specific regions of Haiti, educate producers on the U.S. coffee market, and determine the feasibility of connecting Haitian coffee producers to U.S. markets. Based on Gourdet’s findings, he and Kaplan-Pasternak developed a business plan and launched HaitiCoffee.com, Inc. In the first year, Haiti Coffee imported 11,000 lbs of coffee, ending the year with a small profit, and was extended a line of credit from a private supporter. The next year, Haiti Coffee imported a full shipping container of coffee and expanded to a second production site. Coffee bean sales have now impacted the lives of nearly 3,000 farming families in Haiti, and the company has started reintroducing Haitian coffee to the world. In addition to linking producers to markets, F2F volunteers have worked to improve Haiti’s coffee sector by training producers in sustainable production techniques and protecting plants against pests and diseases. F2F volunteer Jean Tsafack-Djiagu trained 97 coffee producers on using shade to increase yields and protect plants from the destructive Coffee Berry Borer. Together, trainees established a Reflection Committee to lead production activities and declared, “We are ready to start a new life with coffee production.”

Asia

Bangladesh Dairy Feed: Land is scarce in this densely populated and disaster prone country and therefore, grazing land for livestock is shrinking day by day. Also, due to poor genetic potential of milking cows coupled with non-availability of balanced supplemental feed, the national average milk production in Bangladesh has remained very low (in the range of 1.5-3.0 liters per cow per day). In this backdrop, F2F volunteer Dr. Roy Chapin helped to develop the first dairy feed program in Bangladesh, which included developing a computer assisted program for formulating rations for lactating cows, a calf starter ration and a ration for growing heifers. “Making dairy feed is the intermediate step in having more milk, meat, money and manure produced in Bangladesh so people there will have more protein, energy, vitamins and minerals in their diets, more money in their pockets and more rice straw converted to fertilizers to increase soil fertility”, Dr. Chapin mentioned in his comments after the assignment. In practice, feed produced following Chapin’s formulation is showing highly encouraging results with an average increase in milk production by around 40 percent, which means, the cow that earlier gave an average of five liters milk per day, now with Chapin formulated feed is giving seven liters. Feed production plant manager Mohammad Khasru and marketing officer Jadu Gopal in a recent interview mentioned that demand for their dairy feed is increasing and the marketing horizon is gradually being widened to cover most of the strategic dairy pockets in northern, eastern and north eastern parts of the country.

West Africa

Mali Sheep and Goat Farming: In the village of Solla-Bougouda, as in many other villages in the West Sikasso region, most families have corn porridge for breakfast; and corn porridge, break corn or corn paste with tomatoes, onion or okra sauce for dinner. If a third meal is taken the options are the same. New York City Chef Benedicto came to Bougouni Circle in the Sikasso region of Mali to share his creative use of farmer products in nutritious, inexpensive meals. He worked with 4 villages and 1 school including 125 men, 129 women, 118 youth and totaling 372 (36 with disabilities). He first requested that the participants share their cooking methods and ingredients. He then explored what was available in their community gardens and sold on the roadways. With this information he was able to increase the nutrition and diversity of their meals. Measuring tools were ignored. Participants were encouraged to use their intuition and trust their eyes and taste when creating meals. Almost half of children in the rural areas of the Sikasso region, 42%, show delayed growth (Malian Demographic and Health survey: EDSM-V 2012-2013). Benedicto built the capacity of men, women, and youth to prepare and appreciate more diverse food choices, such as the highly nutritious moringa tree leaf, papaya, sweet potatoes, and spices, along with the addition of protein from fresh milk, eggs, chicken, and fish from the local river. The village chief, Mr. Djeka Mariko, praised the results: “Benedicto you are a blessing…, by coming so far and training all of us on the importance of using our foods as our medicine to maintain health.”

Europe, Caucasus & Central Asia

Tajikistan Orchard Management: Akmal Dekhan Farm sits on 21 hectares in Sughd province, producing sweet apricot varieties that are in high demand in local markets. It is located in Tajikistan’s portion of the Fergana Valley, a large triangular and very fertile valley in what is an often dry part of Central Asia. Sughd province is the country’s breadbasket, with the most productive farmland in a country with only six percent arable land. However, agricultural practices remain antiquated, leaving productivity well below its full potential. F2F staff analyzed Akmal Dekhan Farm and determined that its major challenge was low productivity as a result of outdated orchard management techniques, which kept sales and income for the farm low. F2F volunteer Brian Flanagan, an international agriculture and rural development specialist from New York, visited Sughd province for two weeks to train a group of orchard farmers on proper pruning and grafting techniques. Mr. Flanagan also trained owners on the importance of soil testing and collected a number of soil samples from Akmal Farm, sharing the results and recommendations on proper fertilization once tests results returned. Finally, the volunteer demonstrated an inexpensive, non-toxic dormant oil spray that can be easily mixed using readily available ingredients and is highly effective at controlling many diseases and pests that afflict fruit trees. Mr. Flanagan’s time with Akmal was well spent. Over the course of one growing season, gross sales increased 32 percent, while productivity jumped nearly 30 percent to 66,800 kilos. F2F assistance in orchard management and improved production practices has helped farmers satisfy local demand while increasing incomes and sustainability for their businesses.

For more information, please visit: http://farmer-to-farmer.org/