USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program provided technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, and other agricultural sector institutions in developing and transitional countries from 2023-2025. The program promoted sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, productions, and marketing, and increased the U.S. public’s understanding of international development issues and programs. The F2F program relied on the expertise of volunteers from U.S. farms, universities, cooperatives, private agribusinesses, and nonprofit farm organization to respond to local needs in host-countries.
The Smith Center led the Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow (ALOFT) regional Farmer-to-Farmer program for Southeast Asia. ALOFT was implemented in partnership with a regional consortium of institutions in Cambodia, Thailand, and the Philippines. ALOFT supported youth-led and youth-serving institutions to build more resilient and inclusive food systems through demand-driven technical exchanges with U.S. volunteers. The program integrated youth into agricultural value chains through four areas of voluntary technical assistance:
- Conservation agriculture
- Agricultural entrepreneurship and agribusinesses
- Agricultural education
- Extension and advisory services
