Russia – Farmer-to-Farmer Program (FtF)

Providing Technical Assistance to Develop Russia's Agribusiness Sector

Since 1992 ACDI/VOCA has implemented numerous projects aimed at improving Russian agriculture and increasing the sustainability of agricultural enterprises. One proven method is teaching new skills and techniques to farmers through the Farmer to Farmer (FtF) program. FtF is a worldwide initiative that seeks to develop the sustainability of private agricultural enterprises and support organizations, as well as rural finance organizations. U.S. volunteers provide technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses and rural credit organizations in 10 developing and transitional countries in Eurasia and eastern Africa.

Short-term FtF volunteer consultants advise local farmers on technology transfer, quality control, product diversity, business strategy and human resources management, among other agribusiness issues. FtF works to improve the quality and viability of agricultural support institutions and financial institutions that provide much-needed resources to the agricultural sector. In a consortium with Land O' Lakes and Winrock International, ACDI/VOCA focuses on strengthening five components of the producer-to-market agricultural system in Russia: farm production, post-harvest handling, intermediate and final processing, retail and wholesale sales, and local and regional markets.

U.S. volunteer consultants have helped Russian agribusinesses develop over 310 new bakery, dairy and meat products, and the program was instrumental in establishing a long-lasting partnership between the Moscow State Agricultural Engineering University and several U.S. universities, including Pennsylvania State University and the University of Maryland. Twenty-four volunteer professors taught special agricultural courses to Russian and American students, developed high-quality distance education courses and launched a joint electronic journal.

In addition, FtF volunteer consultants have been instrumental in expanding agricultural support mechanisms such as farm extension services. ACDI/VOCA has special relationships with the Association of Mushroom Growers and the Moscow Mushroom School, which has become a leading technical assistance provider for substrate production in Russia. FtF collaborates with the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service as well as with the USAID Mission in Russia to coordinate technical assistance.

FtF has also focused on strengthening rural finance in Russia. Credit cooperatives are still in the nascent form and need training in monitoring and credit risk management but with the volunteers’ help, FtF is addressing the problem of access to credit for rural people. For example, ACDI/VOCA has developed a unique relationship over the course of seven years of partnership with the U.S. Farm Credit Administration (FCA), bringing bank examiners to Russia as FtF volunteers to help the FtF consortium set up a monitoring system based on FCA principles. In addition, FtF has provided farm credit system experts who have helped improve policies and procedures across scores of individual rural credit cooperatives.

ACDI/VOCA has seen the results of its successes with numerous Russian small and medium-sized enterprises. One such agricultural cooperative used an FtF volunteer's recommendations to increase milk production by 10 percent from 1,095 MT to 1,204 MT and improved average milking yields from 3,910 kg to 4,300 kg. Another Russian FtF host was able to achieve a 12 percent increase in total grain yield from 5,000 MT to 5,600 MT and a 20 percent increase in net revenue from $58,725 to $70,680. FtF's unique people-to-people approach focuses on helping the Russian people develop their agribusiness sector and achieve prosperity.

ACDI/VOCA concentrates on providing technical assistance to the dairy and meat sectors and cooperative development. The dairy sector is particularly important because currently there is a low average milk yield per cow in Russia, which means there is not enough milk for domestic consumption. ACDI/VOCA partners with agricultural universities to conduct trainings and extensions for dairy businesses and cooperatives to increase their production levels.

FtF has conducted 140 evaluations of its 129 volunteer assignments in the dairy and egg sectors. Of the 100 hosts surveyed, 98 adopted volunteer recommendations to introduce changes in host operations. These changes have resulted in the hosts’ net income increasing by over $7.4 million and their gross sales increasing by $69.7 million. In addition, our volunteers helped dairy and egg facilities create and improve 53 products, which has benefited over 53,500 people who work on the farms and processing plants.

Over the life of the Russia project, FtF has given technical training to over 453 host organizations, including 29,158 direct beneficiaries who received hands-on training from our volunteers and an estimated 467,811 indirect beneficiaries who benefited from ACDI/VOCA’s assistance.

For more information, contact Katie Roman at kroman@acdivoca.org.

Updated: 1/08

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