Agriculture and Food Security

With his silver-streaked beard and fashion scarf, seated in Sukhasana (a yoga meditation pose), Marco Barbi may seem like an unlikely candidate to help kickstart the Guatemalan economy. For starters he is Italian, married to a French astrologist and is himself the author of several personal growth books. He arrived to Guatemala via Mexico over a decade ago, and choose to make the outskirts of Antigua his home.

As part of this F2F assignment, Mr. Ndi visited and led trainings at several of Fabretto’ youth centers in Managua as well as in northern town of San Jose de Cusmapa. At these centers, he delivered a series of youth-focused workshops meant to train Fabretto staff, tutors, and students on various aspects of merchandising and e-marking for small agricultural enterprises.​​

A look back at the past year of accomplishments from our Farmer-to-Farmer program which connects volunteers from the U.S. with farmers, cooperatives, and other institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Colombia-based natural skincare company Zen Naturals sources its ingredients from the Department of Cauca, one of the regions most affected by the country’s prolonged armed conflict. Through ethical manufacturing and fair trade practices, the company has taken a leadership role in re-investing in the Paez indigenous communities that grow the quinoa used in their products.

Partners’ Farmer-to-Farmer program recently sent Connie and Wayne Burleson on an assignment to Nicaragua. Connie provided training to school teachers on crop management, harvesting methods, and composting, while Wayne provided training to local organizations on the use of rotational cattle grazing practices with electric fences.

Partners' Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer Abe Fisher urges malnourished Haitians to consider rabbit as a sustainable source of protein and income. Abe, a career network engineer and a hobby rabbit farmer from Pennsylvania, recently returned from 2 weeks in Haiti in which he exchanged best practices around rabbit breeding.

An assistant professor at the University of Illinois traveled to Nicaragua last month as a Farmer-to-Farmer volunteer. Based on his experience, he made a number of recommendations to help improve livestock practices and increase efficiency.