TIFTON — Esendugue Greg Fonsah recently returned from Mozambique, South Africa where he participated in a two weeks assignment from Sept. 19 to Oct. 6 through the CNFA John Ogonowski’s Farmer-to-Farmer program.

CNFA “is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to increasing and sustaining rural incomes by empowering farmers and rural entrepreneurs. The CNFA FtF program is part of the U.S. foreign aid program, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development with the aim of improving the lives of small-scale and private farmers and agribusiness entrepreneurs throughout the world.”

Fonsah is an associate professor and extension economist in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Georgia, Tifton campus. He is specialized in project and farm management, production, marketing, agribusiness and international trade and policy concerning fruits and vegetables. Before joining UGA, he served in different corporate managerial positions with multinational companies such as DelMonte Fresh Produce, Lapanday Food Corporation, Philippines, and Aloha Farms Inc. in Hawaii.

He was awarded the 2006 Presidential Volunteer Service Award for dedicating over 4,000 hours of volunteered services in the United States and abroad. For the past decade, he has volunteered his services in poor countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and Haiti.

Mozambique is a Portuguese-speaking country and his first volunteer assignment in Africa. He worked with the Agency for Manica’s Economic Development “in implementing economic development projects for Macate and Manhene Associations” respectively.

“ADEM has about 57 farmer members involved in intensive and/or semi-intensive agriculture, using gravitational irrigation systems and ox-drawn equipment for land preparation. All members have their own farms but the association has a common farm where all members work together,” said Fonsah.

Fonsah said Manica Province is blessed with an excellent climate and soil conditions suitable for production of commercial fruit such as bananas, pineapple, mangoes, citrus, oranges and tangerines. “These fruit crops are grown by smallholder farmers who are still adopting traditional agricultural practices, which leads to reduced yields, inferior quality and inferior overall cosmetic appearance and above all, reduced selling price and most of the time, inability to sell the produce,” he said. “More-so, transporting the harvested fruits to the market is a problem and practically impossible during rainy season due to poor road conditions. By the time the produce reaches the fresh market, the quality has been compromised.”

Dr. Fonsah’s responsibilities were to “assist ADEM in addressing some of the major challenges and opportunities involved in managing a semi-industrial processing factory for fruits, produce a guideline showing all steps needed to process fruits into juice, training employees and the ADEM management team on how to process fruits, manage a semi-industrial processing plant” and educate the farmers, government agriculture officials and the newly created Instituto Superior Politecnico de Manica students on how the UGA Modified Extension Program can improve Mozambique’s agricultural sector if well implemented and followed up.

ISPM awards undergraduate degrees in four major areas: agribusiness, forestry, accounting and animal sciences. The directors of ISPM are looking for the best U.S. universities for collaboration and for their students to pursue advanced studies (master’s and PhD degrees) in the near future so as to better serve their people and community. Fonsah said the University of Georgia is at the top of their wish list.

According to Dr. Fonsah, who is originally from Cameroon, Central Africa, he gets personal satisfaction from assisting those in dire need at home and abroad. “It is a wonderful experience that cannot be substituted with money,” he said. “ The people are extremely nice and the country is beautiful. We are blessed in America and do not appreciate what we have until we compare with other poorer nations out there. If we all share just a little of our time and expertise with the needy, the world would be a better place to live. CNFA Inc and USAID are doing a wonderful job to shape the world and I am proud to be part of it.”