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FY 2016 Annual Report

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FY 2016 Annual Report FY 2016 Annual Report Jamaica Sustainable Farm Enterprise Program October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016 Program Development Project Sub-Award NO: PDP 2014-1 Submitted to Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance Washington, DC TABLE OF CONTENTS Contents Summary of Program Implementation............................................................................................ 2 Impact and Accomplishments ......................................................................................................... 3 Collaboration................................................................................................................................... 4 Challenges ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Plans for Year Three ....................................................................................................................... 5 Volunteer Assignments/Scopes of Work………………………..................................Annex Case Study: A Justification for Organic Agriculture..………………………………….Annex 1 Summary of Program Implementation The Jamaica Sustainable Farm Enterprise program is focused on building local, ecologically based, disaster resistant organic food systems. Our goal is to develop market driven organic value chain production, certification, and distribution systems for agricultural products that will sustainably reduce food insecurity and poverty. Under the program small landholder farmers and existing producers are increasing their production and adopting Permaculture and Organic Farming (POF) systems. In FY16 we continued to build the program participation and fielded 19 volunteers for 230 volunteer days. Among the program accomplishments are: • Launched the Ujima Farmers Market – the first organic and natural farmers market in Kingston which sources the majority of its produce from JSFEP participants • Improved the organization and management of the market adding additional road signs and marketing. • Facilitated program participants travel to the United States for networking, fundraising, training, and technical assistance • Created Organic Strawberry Growers Group in the Blue Mountains that is benefiting from new cultivars from Florida • Provided areal mapping for host partners for planning and certification purposes • Through private donors acquired and fielded an 75HP tractor dedicated to organic host partners • Worked with government and private certifiers to establish a path for host certifications • Launched a Microloan fund to support host partners • Organized a Community Supported Agriculture program called Farm Box To Go • Engaged the Jamaican Diaspora for financial and organizational support • Organized host farmers into an Organic Onion Project at PGR Cooperative Through these accomplishments and others word has spread on the results of the program and onboarding of farmers has increased to the point where we will discuss in November during a staff retreat and planning session how many new host participants can reasonably be serviced in the second half of the program. In FY15 we had upwards of 40 individual or farmer groups and in FY16 we added more than 60, a150 percent increase. This number represents individuals and cooperatives actively farming under the program and excludes broader organizations membership numbers. There is new emphasis to streamline the focus areas and crops with the aim to develop organic crop production manuals for four to six crops. Continuing to establish crop budgets and production plans in FY17 will create better results as we implement a distribution system that will service both the larger domestic and smaller local farmers markets. Criteria for accepting new host will be considered at the November retreat but is expected to include established farmers with both sufficient land and capital to maximize use of the organic dedicated tractor and who are willing to commit to the record keeping and other organic certification requirements. In addition, continued focus on increasing production to fill existing farmer’s market demand is being coupled with formalizing the distribution system for small farmers. Seeing believes in Jamaica and 2 beyond so establishment of a successful demonstration plot at PGR Cooperative is a priority for FY17. The program is on budget but slightly below volunteer placement targets (36 of 40 volunteers.) Local transportation costs are higher than expected. The average number of days per volunteer in year two was 13.09 exceeding the total number of budgeted days per volunteer of 10.5 at an average direct cost per volunteer day of $208. In FY17, FAVACA has established a policy to cover repairs and regular maintenance on the two Source Farm Foundation partner vehicles being utilized for the program. This would be in addition to the existing reimbursement of mileage at the program established rate of .575 cents per mile. At the outset of this policy (October 1, 2016) both vehicles will have a “buyers check” or an assessment of their current condition and repair needs. Base on budget to actual costs through the end of FY16 FAVACA has budgeted up to $5,000 for repairs and maintenance over the remaining life of the project. This projection would be within the established budget and represent less than a 10% shift in budget line items. Impact and Accomplishments The project placed 19 volunteers who donated 230 volunteer days and directly assisted 471 persons. The in-kind value of the volunteers’ time is $108,100. Volunteer consultants made 92 much more focused and measurable recommendations in year two resulting from guidance and lessons learned in the previous year. This is in line with the project’s perspective that hosts have trouble implementing and following through on large numbers of recommendations. This recognition has also led to greater emphasis going into FY17 being placed on volunteer assignments that focus on assisting hosts to implement existing recommendations. Return and follow up volunteers will help to monitor progress and identify feasible ways to implement their or others previous recommendations. For example: establishing cover crops, multi crop planting, and permaculture techniques in fields all of which are targeted to make the host farms more resistant to climate change and improve soil nutrients. In FY15, the Organizational Development Index ratings were only captured for organizations and institutional partners and not for individual farmers. Following guidance from VEGA, FAVACA captured ODI ratings for all hosts to corrected this in FY16. However, there was enough time since the baselines were gathered to reflect any significant changes in the ODI number at the end of FY16. The program will continue to collect baseline ODI indicator data in FY17 for select partners and collect ODI impact data for FY 15 and FY16 hosts. 3 Additionally, regarding baseline data collection the total number of family member beneficiaries for small hosts, such as individual families, was collected in FY15 as actual number of host family members rather than a calculation using a standard multiplier. Larger partners with greater number of clients and supplier’s calculation is used. Recognizing this monitoring and evaluation technique is not consistent and therefore not valid the program as moved to using the four family member’s multiplier established at the beginning of the program for all hosts. Finally, we are pleased to report $25,111.75 in Resources Leveraged by Grantee and Volunteers. This total includes: $25,000 annual contribution from the Singing for Change Foundation that supported a farmer microloan fund and purchase, delivery, and maintenance of a CASE Farmall 75 Horsepower tractor dedicated to organic production. The delivery of the tractor in April of 2016 has been a great incentive for host farmers and as it begins to be more fully utilized in FY17 we expect to see exciting results. Collaboration The JSFEP program continues a positive collaboration with Peace Corps. In FY16 we provided irrigation and water management training for a group of Peace Corps environmental Volunteers. We also continued to host Peace Corps Volunteer Julia Dorn on site with Source Farm Foundation. Peace Corps Environmental Sector Coordinator Anika Smith also coordinates with the JSFE program staff to provide on Permaculture training to beneficiaries across the island. 4 Challenges Climate change, staff support, data collection, and greater focus on implementation of volunteer recommendations have been identified as the key challenges in FY16. Both FAVACA’s Florida office and our Jamaica country office were impacted by hurricanes and severe weather in FY16. While there was no major damage, power outages impacted the program. An assessment of the effect of Hurricane Matthew on local host is still being completed. In addition, the pattern of drought and flood attributed to climate change continues to be a challenge for host farms. JSFE program currently supports one part-time support person and we have found over the course of the program greater demand for data collection was needed. In year three, staying within existing budget and with the expectation that the fiscal impact between budget line items is well below 10%, the program will increase the level of compensation level by approximately two thirds for the administrative support position to reflect the higher level of professional needed and currently fulfilling this position. A-dZiko Simba has agreed to
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