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During the period
of 2003-2008, the USAID's John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer program sent 313
U.S. specialists as volunteers to assist farmers and agribusinesses throughout
Central America. Winrock International and Florida International
University (FIU) were selected to implement this program in the core
countries of Nicaragua,
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Farmer-to-Farmer volunteers provided
assistance to individual farm enterprises, cooperatives, farmers'
associations, agribusiness', rural credit institutions, and
universities, on short-term technical assistance assignments.
Farmer-to-Farmer specialists volunteered their time and expertise. Volunteers are recruited from
universities and agribusinesses all over the United States and the
average length of assignment is 15 to 20 days.
Click here to hear a success
story from the Winrock Development Report
Background
The
Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) Program was first authorized by the U.S.
Congress in 1985 to provide for the transfer of knowledge and expertise
of U.S. agricultural producers and businesses on a voluntary basis to
middle-income countries and emerging democracies. The program relies on
the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, land grant universities,
cooperatives, private agribusiness’, and nonprofit farm organizations
to respond to the local needs of host-country farmers and
organizations. Over the past five years, 2300 volunteers have had the
satisfaction of completing assignments in 33 countries around the
world. Because of the programs’ success,
U.S. Congress re-authorized the Farmer-to-Farmer Program
in the 2002 Farm Bill, and designated it the John Ogonowski FTF Program
in honor of one of the pilots killed on September 11, 2001.
To read more
about: John
Ogonowski.
The
program seeks to promote agribusiness and international trade capacity
development in various world regions. Another goal is to promote
economic growth by empowering citizens to proactively change their
economic standing through education and training. Winrock
International and Florida International University (FIU) have been
selected to implement USAID’s
John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) Program in Latin America from
FY2004-FY2008. Winrock and FIU’s program goal is to increase rural
prosperity and promote trade-led economic growth in the core countries
of Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador by enhancing the
capacity of farm producers and rural industry to benefit from domestic,
regional and international trade opportunities.
Florida International University's Involvement
Utilizing
the expertise at FIU in many fields dealing with Latin America, the College
of Business Administration obtained the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer grant of
$4.2 million in conjunction with Winrock International, to help support
agribusiness entrepreneurship in Central America. FIU provided business
know-how to help farmers in Central America learn to better identify
trade opportunities and increase exports. The college received
approximately $868,000 in funding throughout a five-year period and sent
business professionals in the areas of marketing, entrepreneurship,
information technologies, accounting and general business skills to
provide technical assistance and training to farmers and farmer
organizations in these countries. FIU also recruited agriculture
experts with backgrounds in everything from mango flowering to pest
management.
Winrock International
For more information,
visit Winrock’s web-site at www.winrock.org
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