USAID - Farmer to Farmer program

I stumbled upon this intriguing program from USAID. While it's focused on agribusinesses (less my field of interest), it's a hopeful attempt for the big and bulky USAID bureaucracy to connect overseas on an individual level.



"The John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) Program provides voluntary technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, and agribusinesses in developing and transitional countries to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, production, and marketing. The program relies on the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, land grant universities, cooperatives, private agribusinesses, and nonprofit farm organizations to respond to the local needs of host-country farmers and organizations.

"The FTF Program was initially authorized by Congress in the 1985 Farm Bill and funded through Title V of Public Law 480. The U.S. Congress authorized the current FY 2009-2013 phase of the FTF Program in the 2008 Farm Bill, designating it the "John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter FTF Program" in honor of one of the pilots killed September 11, 2001 and of former Congressman Bereuter, who initially sponsored the program.

"Evaluations suggest that the program provides high quality services from volunteers, leveraging over $34 million worth of volunteer time contributions to development efforts. Approximately one million farmer families (representing about five million people) have directly benefitted from the FTF Program. Volunteers help host individuals and organizations build local institutions and linkages to resolve local problems and have provided direct hands-on training to over 80,000 people. Since program initiation, over 12,000 volunteer assignments have been completed in over 80 countries. Approximately 43% of all individuals trained by FTF volunteers are women."