USAID’s Farmer-to-Farmer (F2F) program provides technical assistance to farmers, farm groups, agribusinesses, and other agricultural sector institutions in developing and transitional countries. The program aims to promote sustainable improvements in food security and agricultural processing, productions, and marketing, as well as to increase the U.S. public’s understanding of international development issues and programs. The F2F program leverages 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 leads the Agricultural Leaders of Tomorrow (ALOFT) regional Farmer-to-Farmer program for Southeast Asia. ALOFT is implemented in partnership with a regional consortium of universities in Cambodia and the Philippines. ALOFT supports 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 seeks to integrate youth into agricultural value chains through four areas of voluntary technical assistance:
- Climate smart agriculture
- Agricultural entrepreneurship and agribusinesses
- Agricultural education
- Extension and advisory services
