Working with...not potatoes!

I had a vision of my life working at the international potato centre (e.g. spending all day looking at, discussing, sampling potatoes), but it turns out that our project is almost exclusively focused on the vegetables that potato farming families also grow and sell. Work has been great so far: my co-workers are wonderful; I spend 1/2 time in the office and 1/2 time in the communities where we're working, which means that everyday is something new to look forward too; and I'm both excited, and challenged by my work. Right now we are in the process of running focus groups and a survey related to sustainable agricultural/vegetable growing practices, livelihoods, health, markets, and organizations in the 5 communities we'll be working with.











A resource map and list of crops by importance for consumption/selling

From there, the project will finance farmer field schools in each community for people who want to learn about organic/non-highly-toxic practices, and we are also going to work with a number of other organizations to promote consumption and production of (organic/ecological) local vegetables. I won't be here to see that part through, but things are looking good - although we're incredibly busy with meetings, and I wonder if anything will come through on time... We don't really have much choice with timing, however, as the potato harvest starts in April, and no one will have much time for focus groups and surveys at that point...











Examples of "ecological" (organic, but not certified) vegetables, and...POTATOES!