OVERSEAS OPERATIONS
VOLUNTEER WORK BY SECTOR AGRICULTURE Peace Corps Agriculture Volunteers help host country communities develop their agriculture sectors to sustainably increase and ensure food and nutrition security and advance and support resilient local livelihoods. By focusing on expressed national priorities and community needs, Peace Corps’ agriculture projects are designed to increase productivity, diversity, and sustainability of smallholder agricultural production; generate new or increased sales and income from agriculture-based activities; and improve household nutrition. Working in local languages, Agriculture Volunteers provide technical assistance to individuals and groups, including men, women, and youth, through one-on-one teaching and group training. When appropriate, Volunteers also use other proven extension methods such as facilitating farmer-to-farmer technical exchanges and Farmer Field School. With their counterparts, Agriculture Volunteers promote the use of appropriate, adapted, sustainable, and low-cost farming practices and technologies. These can include bio-intensive gardening; integrated pest management; improved post-harvest management and storage; optimized use of agricultural inputs (including improved seed varieties and fertilizers); soil conservation and soil fertility management (to increase soil organic matter) including use of compost, no-till cultivation, use of nitrogen-fxing cover crops. Technologies and practices also include use of more efcient water capture and delivery technologies like water harvesting and micro-irrigation. By adopting these “climate-smart” agriculture techniques and practices that intensify production while maintaining ecosystem services and improving the natural resource base, farm systems adapt to
less predictable and more intense environmental conditions and increase carbon sequestration. In this way, Volunteers assist smallholder farming communities to become climate resilient. Agriculture Volunteers also support smallholder farmers and other community-based producer groups by conducting training and coaching in income generation and basic business skills, marketing, and organizational development— including forming savings and lending associations, project design and management, and use of digital technology. All Agriculture Volunteers promote proper preparation and consumption of diverse, nutrient-rich crops through household-level nutrition education. This focuses, in particular, on improving the nutrition of women of reproductive age and infants during their frst 1,000 days of life. At the time of the FY 2020 global evacuation of Volunteers and Trainees, there were 695 Agriculture Volunteers worldwide.8 Examples of Agriculture Volunteer work: ■ Improving traditional cropping systems by introducing farmers to improved seed varieties and improved practices and technologies like conservation agriculture (e.g., no tillage, use of permanent soil cover using organic mulch, green cover crops, crop rotation) and agroforestry strategies (e.g., alley cropping, planting windbreaks and living fences, incorporation of leguminous and multi- purpose trees). ■ Encouraging creation of home and school gardens while raising awareness of the nutritional advantages in producing and consuming a variety of vegetables and fruits, particularly those with high nutritional value such as Vitamin A-fortifed orange-feshed
8 In addition to the Volunteer totals listed for each sector, 152 Peace Corps Response Volunteers entered on duty in FY 2020, and served in all six Peace Corps program sectors, across all three regions.
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THE PEACE CORPS’ CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET JUSTIFICATION 2022
