06/24/08 Peace Corps Needs Ag Workers

Peace Corps Needs Ag Workers. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Most of us no matter our age have heard of the Peace Corps. Some may have even volunteered your time. Now the Peace Corps is asking for volunteers that have some specific skill sets. Elly Slakie is a recruiter and former Peace Corps volunteer. SLAKIE: Anyone who has a background in agriculture and whether that's growing up living on a farm, working on a farm for their whole life or actually has formal training and a degree in agricultural economics or farm management or something like that. Yes, the Peace Corps wants you. SLAKIE: Our most basic agriculture program someone can qualify for with a 4-year degree, a bachelor's degree and a minimum of 3 months experience in farming or large scale vegetable gardening or something like that so the minimum is pretty easy to qualify for but we also have several programs that do require either several years of farm experience or specific degrees. Becoming a Peace Corps volunteer will require 27 months of your time and if you have an interest in volunteering, the first step is to remember that it is a volunteer position, not a paid position. SLAKIE: Because it's a federal program funded by the government they don't really have any out of pocket expenses so living allowance, housing, medical care, transport that's all taken care of. We work in quite a few different program areas but agriculture is definitely one that there continues to be a lot of demand on behalf of the countries and it is one of the areas it's a bit more difficult for us to find qualified people. The application process is rather detailed and it can take upwards of 9 months to a year to get accepted into the program. Over the years it always seemed to be something that young, college age people were well suited for. Slakie says that is changing. SLAKIE: We actually have a push right now to get people who are actually retiring, kind of baby boomers that may have heard about Peace Corps when they were younger. You can't be too old for the Peace Corps. Hmm&I volunteered once to our government. If you do have an interest in the program Slakie says to contact them. SLAKIE: They can contact me directly or contact our office directly. I would also recommend people that are interested to look on our web site which is peacecorps.gov. It has basic information about all of our programs but there is a lot of specific information about the agriculture programs as well. If you do decide to volunteer and are accepted you will most likely get an extremely rewarding life experience. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.