Members of the specialty coffee cooperative “Los Maronchos” work in the field at the coffee farm located in Las Vegas, Santa Bárbara, Honduras. Coffees grown by farmers who are members of this cooperative won Honduras’ 2011 Cup of Excellence and had received assistance through USDA’s Food for Progress Program. Photo credit: TechnoServe

If you can name it, there’s probably a competitive event for it. For instance, coffee has its own competition called the Cup of Excellence. In the coffee world, no honor is more sought after. It is given each year to only top coffees from participating coffee-producing countries. Read more »

A farmer field school in Sanoyea Town, Bong County, Liberia. Photo Credit: ACDI/VOCA.

Nations like Liberia have much to gain, as high-level officials from the United States and 37 Sub-Saharan African countries gather in Lusaka, Zambia, for the June 9-10 African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum.  Not only is Liberia eligible for AGOA trade preferences, allowing it to export a host of agricultural products to the United States duty-free, but it could receive more than $87 million in U.S. assistance in fiscal year 2011 to strengthen economic growth, which includes its agricultural sector. U.S. trade capacity building and technical assistance places Liberia in a better position than most to take advantage of AGOA trade preferences. Read more »

The United States has a long history of helping those in need and USDA has played a large role in these efforts over the years. The U.S. government’s food assistance programs were born in a time of conflict. Food aid played a crucial role in the reconstruction of Europe after World War II. Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Acting Under Secretary Michael Scuse reflected on America’s food aid legacy and renewed efforts to combat world hunger during a speech today at the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) Nutrition and Development Conference. Read more »

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack today announced that USDA will donate more than $145 million in international assistance under the Food for Progress Program in fiscal year 2010. This figure will benefit more than 3.4 million people in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East by providing access to new opportunities for farmers and rural communities.

In 2006, Uganda’s Eastern Dairies, a company comprised of 11 local dairy cooperatives, quadrupled its sales in one year with assistance provided by Land O’Lakes, Inc., under USDA’s Food for Progress (FFPr) Program.

Before this FFPr project began, the cooperatives’ more than 500 members—of which 50 percent are women—were suffering from insufficient household incomes and lacked the ability to independently address Uganda’s low milk prices, volatile demand swings and unreliable payments by some buyers. In recognition of these problems, Land O’Lakes submitted an FFPr proposal to provide technical assistance and training to Uganda’s dairy industry to increase its productivity and competitiveness through market development, quality assurance and capacity building activities.

In 2005 USDA accepted the proposal and donated 11,100 tons of U.S. hard red winter wheat to Land O’Lakes. The wheat was sold in Uganda and the funds were used to partly pay for the cooperatives to install a 2,000-liter milk cooler at Eastern Dairies. With guidance from Land O’Lakes, the cooperatives reinvested their profits and member contributions to purchase more assets, upgrade their milk bulking center, and open two new sales outlets, which sell more than 15,000 liters of milk per month. As a result, household incomes have grown by more than 50 percent and Eastern Dairies‘ average monthly profit is more than $3,000. The expansion of the company has created input and service industry jobs and the company itself has grown from one employee to 10 fulltime workers.

The successes achieved at Eastern Dairies have prompted Land O’Lakes to begin working with MADDO Dairies to set up a new milk collection center in Lwagenge, a remote village in Masaka, Uganda, where dairy market accessibility is limited due to poor roads. Last year, MADDO Dairies was expected to install a new milk cooler with a 3,000-liter capacity, benefiting 80 dairy farmers and helping them reduce spillage and spoilage.

Farmers deliver milk to the Eastern Dairies milk collection center. (Photo by Land O'Lakes/Uganda.)

USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service administers the program, authorized by the Food for Progress Act of 1985.  More information is available online at:  http://www.fas.usda.gov/excredits/FoodAid/FFP/foodforprogress.asp

For more information about Land O’Lakes development work, visit http://www.idd.landolakes.com/.