VEGA volunteers include U.S. farmers, agribusiness professionals, and other agriculturists who help local producers bring their agricultural products from the farm to the table. In the past, volunteers have assisted a wide variety of groups, including dairy processors and producers, field crop producers, beef cattle farmers, vegetable and fruit growers. Their expertise includes production, processing and marketing of agricultural goods, along with practical assistance in managing both finances and business operations.

Illustrative examples include:

• Providing producers and producer organizations with knowledge on varieties, sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) standards, integrated pest management (IPM), cost and quality control, crop and harvest scheduling and field practices such as reducing field temperature, packing and classification;
• Improving business planning, administrative and financial management, and leadership capacity of farmers associations, cooperatives, women's and young farmer groups, and other producer organizations;
• Advising farmer organizations on how to operate democratically and effectively, and assisting members to upgrade production capability and increase revenues;
• Strengthening the capacity of business service providers to conduct supply chain analysis;
• Launching farm stores in towns and villages to provide input supply, machinery services, credit and market network to thousands of private farmers;
• Helping to develop new agribusiness partnerships, including farm service centers and partnerships to improve a country’s capacity to produce high-value fresh and frozen products and to compete in world markets;
• Delivering high impact effective training in farm management, business planning and cooperative development;
• Introducing improved post-harvest handling and processing technologies, such as drying, classification, cost-effective and product-sensitive transportation, proper storage and improved packaging;
• Providing technical assistance in improved marketing and sales, e.g., branding, negotiating contracts and agreements, and executing direct and indirect sales; and
• Developing new alliances such as strategic alliances and joint ventures with American firms.