In many Latin American countries, outreach activities have often addressed technical and economical issues specific to small-scale fruit and vegetable farmers. Unfortunately, in most of cases, despite successful delivery of information to the target audiences, long-term adoption of novel practices for enhanced food safety, postharvest handling, and processing techniques of horticultural products is low.

This project forms an international team of researchers and extension experts (from the United States, Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay, Ecuador, Guatemala and South Africa) to gather preliminary information about current extension methodologies used in Latin America. The team identified barriers to adoption of enhanced practices for these important topics. The results of this project provide the basis to develop a program that will result in effective technology transfer and sustainable changes in production. Collectively, these changes will improve the income of small-scale Latin American horticultural farms.