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Michigan ag volunteers needed for the Peace Corps
Twenty-three-year old Nate Engle of Reed City is in Marovoay, Madagascar (off the Southeast cost of Africa) working with a farmers' cooperative (97 farm families) to increase production of red rice and Arabica coffee.
Twenty-three-year old Nate Engle of Reed City is in Marovoay, Madagascar (off the Southeast coast of Africa) working with a farmers' cooperative (97 farm families) to increase production of red rice and Arabica coffee.
"We are on the western edge of Madagascar's largest remaining corridor of rainforest which contains a number of animals and plants found nowhere else in the world," he said. "Intensifying yields on land that is already producing crops is important for the Malagasy people because their population is skyrocketing, land is becoming harder to acquire, and the land they do have is producing less and less each year when farmers practice traditional land management techniques," he said.
Engle is in the Peace Corps, which needs more agricultural volunteers to serve overseas, according to Scot Roskelley, spokesman for the Peace Corps' Chicago regional office, which recruits volunteers from Michigan.
"Currently, there are about 10 people from Michigan assigned to agricultural posts that require college agriculture degrees, but we could use many more," Roskelly said. "Trained agriculture volunteers are always the toughest to find, and when we don't find enough, there are communities who have put in requests for agriculture volunteers who go without."
Peace Corps assignments are for 27 months. All living expenses, including health and dental, are paid. At the conclusion of the 27 months, volunteers are given a $6,075 readjustment allowance. Roskelley said it's never too late to join the Peace Corps, explaining that the oldest volunteer right now is 82 years old. But young volunteers like Engle can plan on taking home a lifetime of satisfying memories.
"I'm teaching and promoting a locally-developed rice planting technology that involves water control on rice fields instead of flooding them, weeding systematically with mechanical weeders, planting in grid patterns to maximize each plant's nutrient base, and using compost where possible to enrich fields," Engle said. "This method yields up to five times more rice per hectare as traditional methods. In addition, I'm linking farmers to private- sector buyers where they are getting much higher prices for their goods than they would in their local markets. By increasing their yields, accessing new markets and learning more about the diverse environment around them, Malagasy farmers are practicing less slash-and-burn agriculture, cutting down less rainforest, which they traditionally do to cultivate more rice fields, and empowering themselves to better their economic situations," he said.
The farmers' cooperative Engle works with consists of subsistence farmers who have organized themselves in hopes that collectively, they can improve their livelihoods by working together. He said most live in small mud huts and have no more than five sets of clothes. "They are some of the hardest working people I've ever met, mainly because if they don't produce enough food, they go hungry," he said.
Engle grew up on a family farm north of Reed City.
"Mostly it was just a hobby farm, but we were always growing some corn, potatoes, tomatoes, squash and raising chickens, sheep, turkeys, goats and the like," he said. "I have transferred those experiences and applied them to learning about rice and coffee, and although I'm by no means an expert, the base knowledge is the same, which is critically important to those type of crops succeeding in the environment I now live in." Engle earned his B.S. degree in Agribusiness Management from Michigan State University.
Another Michigan Peace Corps volunteer, Joe Foltz, age 24, from Petoskey, and his wife, Jennifer, are serving in Binaba, Ghana. Joe writes: "My primary assignment is consulting with the Binaba Women's Farmers Association (BWFA). The farmers have 100 acres that are irrigated year-round where they grow rice during the summer months and onions in the winter months. Because transportation is the largest cost to agriculture, versus land prices in Michigan, BWFA purchases the members' harvest and stores them while my counterpart at BWFA and I do market surveys to see where prices are relative to what we paid. BWFA makes money on the relatively predictable model of buying commodities when prices are low and selling when they are high.
"My secondary activity includes, but is not limited to, writing and implementing a grant to build a new onion storage facility with shelving, which we completed," he said.
The Foltz's live in a traditional mud brick enclosed compound with a zinc roof and summer hut (gazebo). There are three rooms - a kitchen, a room for the Foltz's and one for guests. "We have a pit latrine and take bucket baths. We don't have electricity or running water, although we bought a solar powered lantern, which is far superior to kerosene. Jennifer and I decided that we could not fetch our own water, so we invited our neighbor to help us, and in return, we pay her school fees and help her study, take her to towns she has never been to, and in general, are there to support her."
Joe said people with agricultural training will find many eager listeners in rural Africa, where almost everyone farms. He encourages others with ag experience to volunteer in the Peace Corps.
Joe grew up on a dairy farm in northern Michigan and earned a BS in Agri-Business Management from Michigan State University.
Ben Tirrell, age 24, from Charlotte, is serving with the Peace Corps in the Glodeni district of Moldova. Recently, he and his Moldovan counterparts wrote and won a grant for four mini demonstration projects (to include instructional activites) for rabbit production, sunflower production, watermelon production and vegetable production, using drip irrigation.
Ben Tirrell, age 24, from Charlotte, is serving in the Glodeni district of Moldova. Recently, he and his Moldovan counterparts wrote and won a grant for four mini demonstration projects (to include instructional activities) for rabbit production, sunflower production, watermelon production and vegetable production, using drip irrigation.
"Also, another volunteer and I are working with three groups of women to form an organization to export Moldovan handicrafts," he said.
Tirrell works for what he said amounts to a Moldovan Extension office funded through foreign grants, with his particular office funded by European Union funds. "These are people with a good knowledge of production agriculture, but their business management and marketing skills are woeful," he said.
Like Foltz and Engle, Tirrell has a B.S. degree in Agribusiness Management from MSU. He grew up on a family farm which raised approximately 350 ewes, as well as other traditional field crops.
"Hopefully we can boost the number of ag. volunteers from Michigan even more," said Roskelley. Peace Corps information sessions are conducted in Ann Arbor, Kalamazoo, Mt. Pleasant, Grand Rapids, East Lansing, Detroit, and in Marquette and Houghton periodically throughout the year, he said. A complete schedule of Peace Corps info meetings is posted on the Peace Corps website at www.peacecorps.gov.
Source: Peace Corps special for Michigan Farm News.
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