Introduction:

“It’s clear that agriculture, done right, is the best means the world has today to simultaneously tackle food security, poverty, and environmental degradation” – Irene Rosenfeld

As we draw to a close on our asset-based community development project, we have begun reflecting on what we have learned throughout the process of this project. There has been a lot of change throughout our project duration, many of it having to do with insight into post-harvest loss and how greatly it affects developing countries in keeping crops viable and distributable. Like Irene Rosenfeld mentions, agriculture is a very important part in contributing to reduction of food insecurity, poverty as well as environmental degradation. In this project, we have come to understand that storage is a key aspect in preventing the loss of crops and presenting methods to developing countries that are more sustainable for their purpose provides a means in ensuring reduced crop loss and aiding food security.

Moment of Significance:

What?

The aim of our project was to find the most easily implemented, cost friendly storage method for farmers in the province of Punjab in Pakistan to utilize. Through this project we have come to understand the importance of communication between the community partner and our group. Though initially, we had a fair amount of contact with our community partner, that seemed to wane as the project advanced. We acknowledge that our partner was busy, but also identify that, as students, we have our own time restrictions and accommodating all schedules proved difficult. Additionally, we came across barriers such as finding peer-reviewed articles for the research portion of our data. This limit of applicable journal was due to having an extremely narrow focus for our project.

So What?

This project introduced our team to being more self-directed and reliant. During this process, we felt as though we did not have the support that groups who were more involved with their community partners utilized. As aforementioned, communication between our community partner was sparse thus forwarding a lot of the expectations onto our shoulders. This lack of communication often led to conflict within the group in determining what was to be expected in the final project, as we had expected more involvement with our community partner. The idea for this project is to utilize the assets of the community and to work in the best interests of the community partner. Through a mutual understanding of what was to be expected for the project, effective collaboration could occur.

A further result of our communication issues lead to an inability to find an accurate representation of what is currently in use for the Pakistani regions. Through this, and in addition to a lack of quality data, we did not receive the amount of information we would have originally wanted. As a result, our collected research may be less applicable to the community.

Now What?

Moving forward, there were a few things we would have done different in order to present a smoother project. Firstly, we wish we would have established a more concrete list of expectations for both communication and project objectives earlier on. Through this, I believe we could have established a better method for communication with our community partner than email and possibly organized an additional meeting after the proposal was submitted as to receive some much-needed feedback. In establishing a better medium for communication, I believe we would have had more clarity throughout the project and would have prevented any roadblocks.

Additionally, we would have attempted to contact more community members in Pakistan that could supply us information as to whether the methods we have suggested and the current methods in play were practical for their location. This would have provided us with further information that the community has in terms of assets. Moving forward, more community involvement would ensure that this project involves accurate, up-to-date information regarding what the Punjab region has in terms of resources as well as the pros and cons to their current methods.

Conclusion:

As a group, we value the experiences and knowledge we have gained throughout working on this project. We learned how to engage with community partners and build skills such as proposal writings. These outcomes will be beneficial for us, as they can be utilized in future projects in our respective fields. We came to understand the real meanings behind asset-based community development, as well as what it means to be adaptable and accommodating when working as a team. Our group, with each individual member coming from different backgrounds and majors, were able to complete this project and solve the challenges through hard work as a team. Though we have been through frustration and downfalls, we have experienced just as many upsides and moments to be proud of and achieved personal growth through the challanges.

As a group, we are excited to see how our work will be involved in the Takhti project and where it will go in the future. We believe this experience is invaluable and that we have all profited from working on this.