By Helen Hollyer

After spending three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in a village in Ecuador, where her accomplishments included introducing soybean products and byproducts to local farmers, Dianne Twete decided to continue sharing her agricultural expertise abroad, but for shorter periods of time.

"When you are a Peace Corps returnee, you can sign up for short term assignments." Twete explained recently. "I was interested in two- to three-week agricultural programs."

Twete has been gardening for the last 33 years, since moving to Oregon from southern California, first for 20 years in Bend, then in Eugene, and for the past six years in the Creswell area, as well as on her property on the Umpqua River.

In 2006, she was certified as a Master Gardener by the OSU/Lane County Extension Service, which in 2009 selected her as Lane County Master Gardener of the Year.

So Twete applied to become a volunteer with CNFA, a private, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, DC, whose goal is to empower people and enterprises in the developing world,

She was accepted in CNFA's Small Enterprise Development Farmer-to-Farmer Program, which is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) as part of the American foreign aid program.

Last year, she spent 19 days (Aug. 15 – Sep. 6, 2009) in the Babati region of Central Tanzania, an East African country about the size of California.

She donated her time and unique skills, while CNFA covered logistical expenses such as airfare, lodging, meals, local transportation and other project-related costs.

Twete's assignment was to demonstrate harvesting, grading and storage techniques for the country's pigeon pea cash crop, a primary export essential to the Tanzanian economy. Through workshops and hands-on training, she was to provide technical assistance to local farmers in drying methods, soil management, disease resistance and crop diversity.

Working primarily in Gendi, Qaash, Kwaraa and Mamire, four villages that participate in the Midawe Mshikamano Horticultural Cooperative Society, she focused on post-harvest techniques, including using grading the pigeon pea crop to enhance its attractiveness to potential buyers in countries such as India.

Before her stint in Tanzania, Twete had been unfamiliar with the pigeon pea, a small bean similar to the more familiar black-eyed pea, but she prepared diligently for her task and soon felt comfortable in her role.

"The Farmer to Farmer Program is real target specific," she explained. "The classes and villages are already set up and my materials had already been provided.

"I brought home enough pigeon peas to practice cooking with them. Pigeon peas have far greater nutritional value than soybeans, without the fat, although soy has lots of byproducts," Twete said.

"I gained an appreciation of the basic necessities of life that we take for granted here," she commented about her experience in East Africa, adding, "We have so much and others have so little. The experience helps me keep my life simple."

Not content to rest on her pigeon pea laurels, Twete has applied for, been accepted and is scheduled to leave in mid April for a CNFA Farmer-to-Farmer Program in the Eastern European Republic of Moldova, where she will be sharing strawberry production technologies with local farmers in a region which has previously been known for grape production.

"Strawberries are a new cash crop for them," Twete said. "They need help on cultivation, pests, weeds and ways to improve the crop.

"What I can give them again is nothing compared to what they give me culturally," she remarked. "It's such a pleasure to be there and I have the luxury of coming back.

Everybody wants to be happy, to have good and a roof overhead. What I've learned in my brief travels is ‘less is more.'"

Having already shared her agricultural expertise in South America and East Africa, and scheduled to continue her grassroots efforts in Eastern Europe, Twete continues to volunteer at the Lane County Extension Service mentoring local gardeners training to be Master Gardeners.

It's amazing how much impact a single local volunteer can have on those living in distant lands.