Purdue’s Evaluation and Learning Research Center (ELRC) contributes to new PERU-Hub project
The Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina (UNALM) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), associated with Oklahoma, Utah State and Purdue universities, the Alliance Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), have launched the PERU-Hub project. This $15 million grant-funded effort will improve the economic conditions of farmers in the Huallaga Valley by building a base of knowledge in tropical agriculture and technology transfer.
Amanda Deering, associate professor of food science in the College of Agriculture, will lead Purdue faculty in contributing to the project, bringing food safety certification, post-harvest practices and policies, food transformation and value chain expertise and crop suitability technology into the collective. Purdue will utilize just under $2 million of the grant’s funding.
Loran Parker, associate director and principal evaluation and research scholar at Purdue’s Evaluation and Learning Research Center (ELRC) in Purdue’s College of Education, will serve as the PERU-Hub project’s co-director of learning. With her partner at UNALM, Parker will co-lead the project’s evaluation team and build capacity at UNALM for project monitoring, evaluation and learning. ELRC will support learning and continuous improvement throughout the project’s lifetime. As part of the ELRC/UNALM evaluation team, ELRC Director Willie Burgess will also contribute expertise in participatory evaluation, data collection, analysis, reporting and continuous improvement.
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