Winrock Asia F2F FY17 Annual Report

The program's primary goal is to generate rapid, sustainable, and broad-based food security and economic growth in the agricultural sector. A secondary objective is to increase the American public's understanding of international development issues and programs and international understanding of the U.S. and U.S. development programs. During the reporting period from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, Asia F2F completed 78 volunteer trips, directly assisting more than 4,490 participants in the four core countries. Of the fielded volunteers, 23 out of 78 were new to the program and 20 were women. The program pursued a Farmer-to-Farmer pilot program in Turkmenistan for 18 months but discontinued engagement due to challenges in obtaining visas for volunteers. In Bangladesh, the F2F program focused on agriculture education and training, with volunteers completing seven assignments during the last six months of FY2017. The assignments directly assisted 130 university faculty and students, researchers, and government extension officials. Volunteers strengthened the capacity of university faculty members to develop and update bachelor and master's program curricula and apply statistical software for advanced data analysis. In Nepal, the F2F program supported the Government of Nepal's Social Welfare Council (SWC) midterm evaluation of F2F in Nepal. The evaluators noted that F2F in Nepal is contributing to the country's constitutional provision that food is a fundamental right by providing technical training, facilitating agriculture curriculum development, supporting research processes, and promoting youth entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector. Asia F2F continued to support other US Government initiatives, including collaborations with the USDA-funded Safe Aqua Farming for Economic and Trade Improvement (SAFETI) project in Bangladesh and the USAID-funded Sustainable Seafood project in Burma. In Nepal, the ongoing collaboration with Peace Corps continued, with seven Peace Corps volunteers attending a training on safe tomato production through integrated pest management. By the end of the fourth year of implementation, Asia F2F has achieved 79% of the life of project (LOP) target for volunteer trips. Major accomplishments in Bangladesh include the Modhumoty Fish Hatchery receiving a Gold Medal for their significant contribution in aquaculture and Aftab Bahumukhi Farms Ltd.- Poultry Program purchasing a real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) machine to adopt molecular techniques in poultry disease diagnosis. In Nepal, F2F training on improved management of agriculture education and training programs helped International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT) - College of Agricultural Sciences establish a relationship with public and private sector agriculture training institutes and private sector agribusinesses. This has allowed IUBAT graduates to have new internship and job opportunities with these agribusinesses.