Planting seeds all over the world

DALTON — Asked how many countries he has traveled to, Richard Edwards thinks for a second.

“You know. I’ve never really counted. I probably should,” he said. “I’ve been to virtually all the old Soviet republics. The only ones I haven’t been to are the three Baltic states, and I’ve never been to Tajikistan. But I’ve been to all the others.”

As the retired Dalton State College business professor starts to reflect, the list grows even longer: the Czech Republic, Kenya and Sudan.

Most recently, he traveled to Mozambique, where he took part in a project with CNFA, an international agricultural development agency, to help small farmers break into larger urban markets.

“They had already organized the farmers in these small villages. They wanted us to look at the markets in the largest city. We were asked to see if they had products they could market there, and if they did, what did they need to do to get it into the market,” he said. “Unforuntately, they were not ready currently to get to market in the city. The city market was too sophisticated for them. They have to improve the quality and get more efficient down at the farm level first. That sounds easy, but these people are so poor.”

Edwards said one suggestion he and the other consultants had was to bring in some organic farmers to teach them techniques that could help them improve the quality of their products.

The Mozambique trip, like the others Edwards has taken over the years, was part of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Farmer-to-Farmer program, which brings in volunteers to help local farmers in developing nations. It’s a natural fit for Edwards, who has spent much of his professional career advising agricultural businesses.

Born in Indiana, he earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Purdue University in the 1960s.

“After I graduated from college, I took a job in Rome. I worked in that field for several years. The last job I had was with a sport coat company. That company closed down, and I was looking for a job,” he said. “The University of Georgia was looking for an industrial engineer for the extension program.”

Edwards was part of a team advising small, rural meatpackers on how to meet new environmental rules.

“I had a master’s degree in business from Georgia Tech. I got that when I was working in Rome. Part of the deal when I went to Georgia was that I get my Ph.D., so I earned a doctorate in business from the University of Georgia,” he said.

In the late 1970s, a friend with the Texas extension service asked if he’d be interested in working there.

“I dealt with the entire range of agribusiness, from farmers to food processors to retailers to farm equipment makers,” he said.

In 1999, he moved to Dalton to help start Dalton State College’s four-year business program.

Edwards said he first got started as a U.S. AID volunteer in the early 1990s. The Soviet Union had just broken up, and the U.S. State Department was focusing its efforts on helping Soviet Bloc countries modernize their economies. His first trip was to Poland to help a farmers cooperative there find new ways to market its products.

“I try to do two or three (trips) a year. I was in Mozambique in December. I go back to Moldova in April,” he said. “I may do another in late July or August. If not, I usually go between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are usually two to three weeks.”

Why does he keep going?

“I’d never traveled internationally before then. It’s an opportunity to see different places and different cultures,” he said.

Over the past five years or so, the U.S. AID’s emphasis has shifted from the former Soviet Union to Africa, where many farmers still cultivate very small plots of land.

“They know how to grow what they grow. But they’ve never taken the step over into the economics of farming,” he said. “Their livelihood is based on a small farm where the idea is ‘I’m going to grow what I need for my family first and what’s left over I’ll take to the market.’”

“The most challenging thing is to widen their horizons and say ‘Instead of growing a little of this and a little of that and a little of that, can you grow more of this and sell it and buy the things you need,’” he said. “It isn’t that they don’t get it conceptually, but the risk seems too great to them.”

But whether it’s Mozambique or Poland, Edwards says the volunteers’ typical advice is to start making small changes.

“Most of the advice we give is to take little baby steps. They aren’t going to take big giant steps, but they can take smaller steps to get to where they want to go,” he said.

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