Author Archives: InnovATE Program

Sowing the Seeds: How One Gathering Led to Increased Agricultural Educational Opportunities for Youth in Ghana and Liberia

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Professor Elvis Asare Bediako (Dean School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast), Professor Livingstone Sam Amoah (Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast), Appiah Boateng (Executive Director of 4-H Ghana) and John Romo (Director of Programs in West Africa, AgriCorps) at memorandum of Understanding signing. Photo: AgriCorps.

Professor Elvis Asare Bediako (Dean School of Agriculture, University of Cape Coast), Professor Livingstone Sam Amoah (Provost, College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Cape Coast), Appiah Kwaku Boateng (Executive Director of 4-H Ghana) and John Romo (Director of Programs in West Africa, AgriCorps) at memorandum of understanding signing. Photo: AgriCorps.

Every international development project that works on human and institutional capacity development tries to plant seeds of change. The USAID-funded Feed the Future Innovation for Agricultural Training and Education (InnovATE) project has recently seen one of its seeds grow into increased agricultural educational opportunities for youth in Ghana and Liberia through a found partnership with AgriCorps.

RUFORUM Side Event—The Seed Sown

The proverbial sowing of the seed was a side event at the Biennial Conference of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in South Africa in October 2016. The event was titled, “Positive Youth Development and Experiential Learning in University Outreach.” InnovATE brought together 4-H and university leaders from Ghana, Liberia, Senegal and Tanzania. The presentations emphasized opportunities for university faculty members to provide agricultural technical guidance and experiential learning programs for community engagement of rural youth by 4-H. Continue reading >

Opportunities for an International Teacher Certificate Program in Agricultural TVET in Central America

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InnovATE convened a workshop on Opportunities for an International Teacher Certificate Program in Agricultural TVET in Central America at EARTH University in Costa Rica in April 2017. Forty-two representatives from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and the United States participated. They included ATVET teachers and directors, policy makers from the Ministries of Education and Agriculture, industry, as well as support ATVET organizations such as donors, implementer’s, and consultants.
The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the hypothesis that a regional certificate program designed cooperatively by TVET authorities in the region could offer a quality, uniform curriculum that teaches the best in vocational education pedagogy. A main objective for the event was to determine if such a regional certification program is attractive ATVET stakeholders in the region.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “The Power of Student Recognition”

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In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Melissa Bonifas, a DuPont Agriscience Ambassador and secondary agricultural educator at Blue Hill Community Schools in Blue Hill, Nebraska, shares her experience with recognizing students and highlighting their experience from the past school year.

Bonfias details one event, the Banquet, which is a school and community-wide event that showcases student achievement that allow them to gain real world experience planning the event, and may connect them with future opportunities business or student leaders.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Preparing for the Future of Agriculture Through Career Exploration”

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In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Kevin Cross, an agricultural educator at Sullivan High School in Sullivan, IN, shares his experience as an educator how he provides opportunities for students to explore agricultural as a career.

Through the Sullivan Future Farmers of American (FFA) in Sullivan, Cross lets students embark on a three-day journey exploring diverse topics in agriculture. Cross shares that this journey ignites a passion for agricultural leaders that strengthen the field and build communities.

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Agrilinks, Ag Educators Corner: “Happy Campers: Growing Agricultural Leaders in the Community”

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In our ongoing relationship with Agrilinks, InnovATE has developed a new feature, the Ag Educator’s Corner. This series of monthly blog posts provides insight & tips to agricultural educators.

In the most recent installment to our Ag Educators Corner blog series, Madison Taylor, a junior at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Dr. Nina Crutchfield, an experienced agricultural educator and local program success specialist with the National FFA Organziation, shares about a program in Uganda intended to ignite a passion for agriculture.

Farm camp, similar to many U. S. 4-H and FFA camps, engages people from diverse areas in agriculture to provide experiential learning opportunities to witness and gain skills, as well as connect and engage with entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

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Institutional Capacity to Integrate Agricultural Education and Nutrition in Malawi and India by Claire Friedrichsen

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How would the global food system be different if agricultural education and nutrition were taught together? The green revolution, which brought widespread dissemination of agricultural inputs to developing countries through extension services, also brought not only increased grain yields in many regions of the world but also obesity. Since 1960, India’s wheat yields increased 7-fold, while their ranking went from 19th most obese country in 1975 to one of the top 5 most obese countries in 2014. Conversely, India remains one of the most hungry countries with one-fourth of the world’s malnourished people. Malawi also has a similar positive trend of increased obesity and persistent malnourishment.

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Sleeping Beauty or Aesop’s Fables: Telling the HICD Story by Keith M. Moore

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“Once upon a time . . .” Setting the context and storyline is important, but promoters of human and institutional capacity development (HICD) need a strong punch line. Indicators are required: output, outcome, impact and process. Participants in the “HICD Storytelling Workshop – from design to evaluation and back again” – spent an afternoon identifying solutions for HICD challenges and developing indicators to tell the story of successes in overcoming challenges.

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