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Economics expert helps develop survey to track success of Farmer-to-Farmer program.
Leisy Melian (MSF ’04), budget coordinator at the Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technologies at Florida International University, brought her love of economics and her knowledge about surveys to a two-week assignment in Guatemala as part of the John Ogonowski Farmer-to-Farmer program, funded by USAID and coordinated through the College’s Knight Ridder Center for Excellence in Management. “The purpose of the survey is to measure the impact of the program on the activities of those who need it: farmers in Latin America,” said Melian, who holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Havana. “It’s important to have actual measures for the progress the farmers are making and to continue to gather in-depth data.” Melian’s assignment was to create a set of questions that would capture sufficient data to make the survey useful—without requiring hours for respondents to complete it. “My colleague and I developed a baseline questionnaire by interviewing the country manager, spent two days in the field asking the questions, then made necessary adjustments,” she said. “The survey can be completed each year—with more detailed questions added to the baseline form—to look at factors such as whether production is up or down, what has happened to income, whether direct or indirect help is needed, and what the effect of new technology has been.”
Seeing how the program is working was a revelation to Melian. “I talked to a farmer to see how he started and where he is now, and there’s a huge difference,” she said. “Being able to talk to him was much different from reading about it in a book or magazine, and I felt good being a part of it.”
She also thinks she might like to do these assignments in the future or find out about similar projects. “I learned a lot about agriculture and I liked the international business aspect of it,” she said. For more information about the program, visit www.entrepreneurship.fiu.edu/usaid. For details on how to participate, contact Carmen Algeciras, director, USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program, at 305-348-0399 or algecira@fiu.edu.
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