Overview of Farmer to Farmer Activities,
Spring 1997

The Center for Rural Studies is coordinating the volunteer efforts of Farmer to Farmer to send Vermont farmers and agriculturalists to Honduras for cultural and information exchange. The Center is working closely with John Chater, Regional Coordinator for Farmer to Farmer. Listed below are the key organizations and projects of this year's Farmer to Farmer activities.

Proyecto Aldea Global (PAG): PAG is a non-governmental organization that has worked with Honduran campesinos (small-scale farmers) in the remote hillside areas of central-northern Honduras called Belen. Chet Thomas is the director of the bilingual staff. PAG brings four to five United States volunteer work teams per year to Belen. The following are projects available through PAG, primarily conducted during the apple-growing season starting in March. A growing season calendar is currently under development.

• Apple-Growing Project: The objective of this project to improve the quality and production of apples grown in the Belen-San Sabastian communities. Requirements of volunteers include growing, cultivating, and fruit production skills and techniques.






• Fruit Processing Plant, Belen: This project's objective is to improve the quality and production techniques of the fruit processing plant belonging to the Lenca Producers' Association. Production focuses on apples but includes papaya, pineapples, blackberries, and other tropical fruit. Volunteers should be prepared with recipes for tropical fruit, home canning techniques, solar drying techniques, trail mix recipes, jams and jellies, snacks, and marketing techniques.
  
  An fruit processor working at the plant in Yure that PAG helped construct.
  

RED (Net): RED is a group comprised of organic farmers who worked with the VT-HP Sabanna Grande community development project of the mid-1980s. RED meets regularly to share technical skills and insights. They are seeking to increase their skills and expand their markets. This network could accommodate volunteer technicians at any time. One possibility is for the volunteer to make a short presentation at one of the network's meetings then to live with the members of the network. The volunteer would gain insight into field and community level situations. This group includes Jose Alias Sanchez, a longtime friend of the VT-Honduras Partnership and many Vermonters. The network also includes several agronomists interested in expanding the velvet bean cover crop production. They contacted Vermont's Lyn Carew during the spring of 1996 because he is interested in addressing the la dopa fungus problem that plagues the bean crop.

Susan Stone's Projects: Susan Stone, a part-time local of Brandon, VT, lives in La Esperanza and runs a farm and bilingual, adult education school. Two volunteers could be housed in a hut across the canyon from the farm. Other volunteers could stay in Yamaranguila, which is a half-hour walk from La Esperanza.

• Organic Farm: Susan works with two campesino partners (Abelino and Santos) raising corn and beans in individual plots with the stipulation that they use appropriate, organic techniques. David Euceda, co-owner of the farm, teaches them proper farming tehcniques using little or no chemical fertilizers. There is an annual scarcity of corn and beans around October. In 1996 beans needed to be imported from the United States. They plan to store surplus in silos this year for sale in the community when scarcities arise. The farm includes 3,000 coffee seedlings and several hundred strawberry plants that are also being grown 100% organically. Citrus and banana trees, among others, provide shade for the coffee. Stone is also planning an apple orchard and a plot of asparagus, with the help of FHIA, an agricultural research agency in La Esperanza. Volunteers would work alongside Abelino and Santos.
• El Maestro en Casa: Susan coordinates an adult basic education program. Volunteers would help develop curriculum and would have the opportunity to visit villages and collectives.
• Elementary School: This bilingual school needs assistance in planning its next step in developing environmental education, computer, and technology goals. David Andrews has more information in this project.