Collaborative Undergraduate Internships on Small-Holder Farms in Western Kenya.

Few experiences are as eye-opening or as life-changing as living and working outside your own country, well outside of your own ‘comfort zone’ and alongside people struggling at the edge of survival. We immersed teams of undergraduate interns on small-holder farms in Western Kenya during June and July, 2016. All host farm families had been collaborating with us for several years in our NIFA-funded research and dissemination program aimed at improving common bean productivity through better soil and disease management. The research dissemination phase of this project presented a prime opportunity to engage undergraduate students in both international on-farm agricultural research and in technology dissemination models and training activities. Undergraduate students worked in pairs: one Cornell University student, one Kibabii University (Bungoma, Kenya) student and were embedded on two different farms over an eight week period, with briefing sessions held before and after their farm stays. Students worked with farm families to identify key constraints to production and to the future of the farm using a systems analysis approach. From their analyses, policy, resource and training needs critical to each farm’s future were recognized and discussed with each farm family. Many of the challenges faced by students were difficult to ascertain in pre-program farm visits, but will deeply inform future programs. Student experiences, challenges and successes of this on-farm immersion program and major lessons learned will be presented and discussed.