Opinion: Farmer to farmer: Making a difference

Sylvain Roy, President and CEO of Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and Bruce Williams, president and owner of Lakeside Farm, Inc. and a volunteer for the CNFA-managed USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program discuss how CNFA’s Farmer-to-Farmer program is utilizing digital technology to adapt to COVID-19. This article was originally published on AgriPulse on April 27, 2020.

It is easy to feel that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought life to a standstill. But life does carry on. Every day, the news is full of stories that illustrate the innovative solutions that individuals and organizations are adopting to adapt to this challenging environment—and when needed, to fulfill their missions.

Here at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), every international development project we implement requires us to develop creative remedies to address the current global crisis.

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About the Event

https://www.egyptcoldchainexhibition.org/ 

Wednesday and Thursday, January 22-23, 2020
Mövenpick Hotel, Cairo (6th of October City), Egypt

The USAID-funded Feed the Future Food Security and Agribusiness Support (FAS) project, an agriculture activity implemented by Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), an international agricultural development organization, in cooperation with the World Food Logistics Organization (WFLO), a core partner of the Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA), have organized the Egypt Cold Chain Exhibition. This exhibition is the first of its kind in Egypt, and aims to provide agriculture and cold chain market players in Egypt with the opportunity to network with each other and learn about new cold chain technologies and operational innovations.

Education and Networking

The event features two main activities: educational seminars on various cold-chain-related topics and networking with international and local cold chain exhibitors.

1. Learn about global best practices and technologies at the educational seminars, including the use of solar energy to power cold chain infrastructure, and discuss the latest in modern cold chain technology with global equipment suppliers.
2. Network with your peers to grow the cold chain within Egypt and to see how embracing the use of cold chain infrastructure can open up new markets within Egypt and export markets.

Why is Cold Chain Development Important for Egypt?

Cold chain infrastructure helps to reduce agriculture post-harvest losses and enables the proper handling and storage of perishable products through the development of systems and best practices for the safe, efficient, and reliable movement of food. Developing a modern, integrated cold chain has proven effective for agricultural development for many countries and offers the potential for economic growth in Egypt.

What are the Challenges in Developing the Cold Chain in Egypt?

The main challenge with cold chain operations are the huge capital investment needed, finding good employees to run the business, and the high costs of maintaining this energy-consuming operation.

Who Should Attend?

Egyptian agriculture and cold chain market players will join hundreds of cold chain players from Egypt and beyond to learn and share about these key topics. Participants will include hundreds of packhouse owners and operators, exporters, agricultural associations, cooperatives and their farmer members, input suppliers, end-market retailers including supermarkets, government officials, and logistic agencies.

Ed Keturakis, Vice President of Program Development at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) and a New Mexico farmer, discusses the importance of conservation agriculture techniques in building soil health and sequestering carbon. This article was originally published on Farming First on January 2, 2020.

During the annual Borlaug Dialogue held at the World Food Prize Summit in Des Moines, this October, U.S. agribusiness industry leaders and university scientists alike agreed that a carbon-neutral agricultural sector is a laudable and achievable goal. There are two primary ways to reduce atmospheric carbon and achieve carbon-neutrality in order to reach this goal. Read more

This post was written by Sheryl Cowan, CNFA Vice President, Programs and Nega Berecha, Director, Programs at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), and was originally published on Agrilinks on December 20, 2019.

Pakistan’s major natural resources of arable land and water have enabled agriculture to become the mainstay of the country’s economy. Livestock production, a subsector of agriculture, plays an especially important role in accounting for over 50 percent of the country’s agriculture sector. Read more

This article by Marjatta Eilitta, program director of USAID’s Southern Africa Farmer-to-Farmer program, implemented by Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), was originally published on Medium on December 5, 2019.

During my first year as Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program director, I have seen first-hand that volunteers are the heart and soul of the Farmer-to-Farmer program.

Montana’s Wayne Burleson provided training on compost production to 142 farmers in the Eastern Province of Zambia using an on-the-ground, hands-on approach — and sharing his great enthusiasm and love for farming. Read more

This article by CNFA Vice President of Talent Engagement & Culture, Tony Butler-Sims, was originally published in Forbes on December 5, 2019.

The world would be a boring place if all people were the same. In fact, our diversity makes human existence much more compelling and interesting. And as anyone who works in international development can attest to, our differences have the potential to not only enrich and broaden our understanding of humankind, but also to provide us with insights into our own lives and the roles we play in the world. Read more

This article by CNFA President & CEO, Sylvain Roy, was originally published in AgriPulse on November 1, 2019.

Every year across the United States millions of people take a major step to protect their health and wellbeing by making the wise decision to get inoculated against the potentially severe effects of influenza…

Governments, like individuals choosing vaccination, also weigh the relationships among cost, benefit and risk in order to design and implement programs that generate the best return on investment, or to put it more succinctly, the biggest bang for the buck. Read more

Sheryl Cowan, Vice President of Programs at Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA), discusses how opening up access to new urban markets alongside tools and technologies, can empower small-scale farmers to move from low-productivity, subsistence farming to profitable, farming that contributes to higher incomes and better livelihoods. 

Female workers in Capsicum fields in MA Agri Farm in Faisalabad, Pakistan.

African migration from rural to urban areas has been occurring steadily for decades. According to statistics from the United Nations, Africa’s urban population has grown from about 27 per cent of the continent’s population in 1950 to 40 per cent in 2015, and is forecast to grow to 60 per cent by 2050. Similar patterns are playing out in other areas across the developing world. Read more

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a five-year activity that will increase growth and expand Nigeria’s agribusiness sector. The Feed the Future Nigeria Agribusiness Investment Activity will facilitate $200 million in new lending and $100 million in new investment across the rice, maize, soybean, aquaculture, and cowpea value chains in Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi, Benue, Delta, Ebonyi and Cross River States.

Click here to read a recap of the launch event.