B2—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October 2,1982
Paraguayan IFY£ compares
farm life
BY SALLY BAIR
Staff Correspondent
Every day is a new experience
for Luis Ketterman, The twenty
year-old youth lives on a 500-acre
farm in the South American
country of Paraguay, and is
spending five months in the United
States learning about farming in
this country as an exchangee in the
International 4-H Youth Exchange
program.
Luis is observing closely all that
he sees because he wants to return
to Paraguay and share some of this
knowledge with farmers there.
He works for the Cooperative
Colonias Unidas, the second
largest cooperative in the country.
It is a purchasing, marketing, and
supply cooperative, and Luis
works in the office with exports as
one of his main responsibilities.
Major crops in Paraguay, are
wheat and soybeans. While most of
the soybeans are exported, the
wheat is used domestically.
Another important crop for
Paraguay is tung oil, which Luis’
cooperative processes and exports.
Tung oil is used for furniture
finishing.
“A little com is grown there, but
we don’t have too much,” Luis
states. "We also grow some tea
This fine handwork was created by Paraguayan Indians and
is called Nanduti. Luis called it “typical Indian” work, inspired
by looking at spider webs.
Driving a tractor came naturally for Luis, since he is ac
customed to helping with field work on his father's
Paraguayan farm. This is one job he can assist with on the
farms he is visiting as part of the International 4-H Youth
Exchange program.
and the cooperative processes
that.”, Another feature of the
cooperative is a large super
market, similar to markets in this
country.
It was through the cooperative
that he had the opportunity to
travel as an IFVE exchangee. He
explains it this way, “The 4-C clubs
(similar to 4-H) are sponsored by
the Ministry of Agriculture. The
cooperative and the agriculture
ministry work together. In the
cooperative, we have a section
which is called the farm education
section. They sent me to one IFYE
program to see if 1 was in
terested.”
Obviously he was, and when he
returns he will work with the farm
education part of the cooperative,
teaching farmers ideas which may
make their agriculture better.
Luis keeps a daily journal of his
activities here, and is taking many
pictures, and he also wants to
share what he has experienced
with members of the 4-C clubs.
He finds agriculture in this
country somewhat different,
noting, “You have a lot more
machinery and use more
chemicals than we do. Where I live
we have a lot of farmers. It is good
fertile land, and we live about two
Twenty-year old Luis Ketterman, an IFYE terman is at home there on a 500-acre wheat
exchangee from Paraguay, points out his and soybean farm.
South American homeland on
miles from a nver, near Argen
tina. We don’t use much fertilizer
but we do use insecticides.”
Luis pointed out that most
equipment must be imported
which makes it very expensive. It
comes from the United States,
Europe or Brazil.
He said most farmers, including
his family, use harvesting
equipment rented from the
cooperative but own their own
tractors.
One of the things which made a
big impression on Luis, was the
care one host father in Kansas took
of his equipment. “Before he
started to work he put oil in and
checked it over. When he was
finished he cleaned it up. He took
very good care of Jus machinery, i
think this is something 1 can tell
fanners in Paraguay.” he said.
Luis is quite busy when he is
home in Paraguay. He works full
time at the cooperative and at
tends college in business in the
evenings. On weekends, he works
on his parents’ farm, where he
lives.
The Ketterman family farms
soybeans and wheat, and Luis says
their 500-acre farm is medium
sized for the part of Paraguay.
The family also raises about 20
beef cows, 10 pigs and 60 chickens
for their personal use. Most far
mers, he says, also have large
gardens to supply fresh vegetables
for the family.
The climate in Paraguay is
tropical, and Luis says it averages
about 90 degrees in the summer,
getting as low as 30 degrees in the
winter. “It freezes a little m the
morning in the winter. ’ ’ he states.
But he laments, “1 have never
seen snow.” It is pointed out to him
that since he is leaving in October,
he probably will not have that wish
granted while staying in Penn
sylvania.
It is currently winter in
Paraguay, and Luis notes, “I will
have three summers this year. I
had summer at home, now I have
summer in the United States and I
will have summer when 1 return. ’'
Luis says his family has always
been farmers. They are part of a
large group of German people
(Turn to Page B 4)
in the Americas
Cutting tobacco was a “totally new" experience for this
international visitor. Here Luis Ketterman stands in a full
tobacco barn, proud of the work he contributed to the harvest
at the Elvin Brenneman family farm near Mount Joy.
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