Farmer-to-Farmer (FTF) is a program of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The program provides for the transfer of knowledge and expertise from U.S. volunteers to farmers, farm groups, and agribusinesses in developing and transitional countries.
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The Farmer-to-Farmer Program was initially funded in 1985 under Title V of Public Law 480 of the U.S. Farm Bill. The U.S. Congress authorized the current phase of the FTF Program (covering fiscal years 2009 through 2013) in the 2008 Farm Bill, designating it the "John Ogonowski and Doug Bereuter FTF 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 re-named 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.[1]
Initiated as a P.L. 480-funded pilot project and authorized first under the Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99-198), the program taps U.S. agricultural expertise to provide technical assistance to farmers in developing, middle income, and emerging market countries. The 2002 farm bill (P.L. 107-171) extends funding authority through FY2007 and requires that no less than 0.5% of P.L. 480 funds be used for the program.
The Farmer to Farmer Program was reauthorized in the current Farm Bill, known as the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008.
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. Volunteers are recruited from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In general, these volunteers are not overseas development professionals, but rather individuals who have domestic careers, farms, and agribusinesses, or are retired persons who want to participate in development efforts. Typically volunteers spend about 20 to 30 days in the host country.
Program evaluations have consistently found 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 been direct beneficiaries of 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 19% of all volunteers are women and about 39% of all individuals trained by FTF volunteers are women.[2]
In September 2008, USAID signed cooperative agreements with three institutions for the provision of FTF Program volunteer services for international agricultural development. From 2008 to 2013, the program will operate in approximately 19 core countries, providing nearly 3,000 volunteer technical assistance assignments averaging three and a half weeks duration. The four Farmer to Farmer Program implementing organizations will work closely with overseas USAID missions and partner organizations, supporting a variety of development programs aimed at reducing poverty and stimulating sustainable and broad-based economic growth.
The 2008 Farm Bill designated the following countries as eligible for Farmer to Farmer Programs:
Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panama, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago
Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Comoros, Djibouti, Seychelles, Sudan
Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Swaziland
Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Burundi, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Togo
Bangladesh, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Afghanistan
Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Egypt, Lebanon, West Bank/Gaza
Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, Albania, Azerbaijan, Serbia, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan
Bolivia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Brazil