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ECHO hosts 15th Annual International Agricultural Conference

5 min read

By ANDREA GALABINSKI, nfmneighbor@breezenewspapers.com

Over 270 delegates from 28 counties attended the Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization 15th Annual Agricultural Conference Dec. 9-11. These experts in agricultural and development work traveled to North Fort Myers to network and learn the latest techniques to help the world’s poorest communities grow their own food.

“This is our biggest conference to date,” said Public Relations and Communications Manager Danielle Flood, who helped welcome the delegates from around the world. Attendees included agricultural missionaries, scientists, development workers, university professors and students. Three days of lectures and workshops were held at a downtown hotel and the ECHO Global Farm on Durrance Road.

“The conference provides a valuable opportunity to bring field experience

together with scientific research in a hands-on learning environment,” said ECHO President/CEO Stan Doerr.

Specific topics for the workshops included dramatic methods that increase rice production, the world food shortage, food/biofuel competition, moringa leaf powder as a nutritious food supplement, conservation farming and reforestation of the Sahel region of Africa.

Key resource speakers included Lowell Fuglie, career missionary in West

Africa; Grant Dryden, the primary teacher of Farming God’s Way in Zimbabwe; Ryan Haden, Ph.D. student at Cornell & International Rice Research Institute; Jim Goering, ECHO board member and former head of the World Bank work in Mainland China and Dr. Martin Price.

“I started this [the conference] in 1993,” said Dr. Price, the recently retired co-founder of ECHO. “It’s so incredible to see it grow. Back then I was hoping to get 20 people together from oversees, we ended up with 90, today nearly 300. Some of those here are the people that are often way out in the middle of nowhere and seldom get the opportunity to interact with colleagues doing this type of work. They’re working with the poorest of the poor.”

ECHO provides sustainable options to world hunger through innovative options, agricultural training and networking with community leaders and missionaries in 180 developing countries. ECHO’s mission is to find agricultural solutions for families around the world growing food under difficult conditions.

Etienne Francois is the Promise Partner program director from Haiti.

“This is my eighth year coming to ECHO for this conference, and every time I come I learn something new,” Francois said. “It all helps me with my work in Haiti.”

Besides those from foreign lands, many U.S. researchers and educators attended the conference.

Mike Reagan is in agricultural research in Monticello, Ill.

“It’s a lot of networking, a lot of people,” he said. “There were specific sessions and techniques on how agriculture can help communities around the world.”

Penn State University Professor Rick Bates has attended the conference the last three years.

“It’s a great resource. I also do development work in Myanmar, the old Burma,” he said. “I come here to learn about crops, technology and to network with other people from around the world.”

That networking is key, he said. “Three months from now I may encounter a problem, and I can look back at this and know who to call from the delegate list.”

Grace Bateman works in Peru as a missionary concentrating on economic development.

“Fighting poverty is now integrated into my work, and the conference is excellent for that,” she said.

Many individuals who have interned at ECHO in the past returned to attend the conference.

Holly Sobetski is with New Mission Systems International based in Fort Myers. “I’ve been working in Cambodia for the last two years teaching about nutrition,” she said. “I was an intern here at ECHO in 2005, and it helped me with ideas to help people grow different plants in the tropics.”

Another past intern, Randy Fish, is now attending graduate school at Appalachian State University.

“The conference experience as wonderful,” he said. “I loved it and it was a very eye-opening, learning experience. I hope to use what I learned in agriculture in the future wherever I’m living, be it North Carolina or the Congo.”

Interns weren’t the only ones who enjoyed the conference. New volunteer Don Tomkinson is volunteering his expertise to help ECHO with IT services.

“I’m thrilled to be part of what ECHO is doing, it’s compassion, helping people,” he said.

The ECHO Global Farm offers guided tours of its 52-acre site in North Fort Myers. Now through the end of December, the tours will be held at 10 a.m., Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. Starting in January and running through March, they will be offered Tuesday through Friday at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., and Saturdays at 10 a.m.

The farm is located at 17391 Durrance Rd., and the cost is $8 for adults and $5 for children 6-12, with discounts available for seniors, AAA members, students, military, missionaries and groups.

For information, call 543-3246, or to learn more about the organization at www.echinet.org.

To go

Who: ECHO (Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization)

What: Guided tours of 52-acre site (90 minutes)

When: Through December 2008: 10 a.m., Tuesday, Friday and Saturday

January through March 2009: Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m. & 2 p.m

Saturdays, 10 a.m.

Where: 17391 Durrance Road

Cost: $8 for adults, $5 for children 6-12. Discounts available for seniors,

AAA members, students, military, missionaries and groups.

Information: 543-3246 or echonet.org