A Train-the-Trainer Program to Train Extension Educators to Teach Business Management Skills to Women Farmers

"Suzanne's Project" is a 28-hour program, which began in the Antalya province of Turkey in 2011 to empower small-scale women farmers to manage their farms as a business by training them in computer literacy, technical production topics, and farm business management. A survey 1.5 years...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors Brumfield, Robin G, Özkan, Burhan, Vezne, Rabia
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published 2017
Subjects
Agricultural Occupations
Agricultural Production
Agricultural Skills
Business Administration
Computer Literacy
Empowerment
Extension Agents
Extension Education
Females
Foreign Countries
Labor Force Development
Program Effectiveness
Rural Areas
Small Businesses
Surveys
Training
Workshops
Turkey
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Summary:"Suzanne's Project" is a 28-hour program, which began in the Antalya province of Turkey in 2011 to empower small-scale women farmers to manage their farms as a business by training them in computer literacy, technical production topics, and farm business management. A survey 1.5 years after the workshop ended found that all of the women felt more personally empowered after taking the course and were eager to share what they had learned with other women and with their husbands, and they were interested in taking more courses. Farming is the principal economic activity in most rural areas of the EU where about half of the population lives in rural areas. Women represent a substantial share of the total agricultural labor force. Helping women farmers get started and thrive in their farming enterprises are policy 'musts' if Europe's rural areas are successfully to meet the many challenges that face them. The "Empowering Women Farmers with Agricultural Business Management Training" (EMWOFA) project aims to extend the type of training provided by "Suzanne's Project" to more women in Turkey and Europe. It provides a comprehensive educational program to develop technical, entrepreneurial and managerial knowledge of extension educators in agriculture. These trained extension educators will train women farmers who are not likely to have been trained in the vocational education system about the technical and managerial aspects of farms, but must work on farms. A survey of 13 extension educators who attended the first EMWOFA Seminar in Freising, Germany was conducted at the end of the seminar. Participants had positive impressions about the Educational Program and felt confident about their knowledge in business management and technical production topics. Educating the women farmers can make them realize that farming is a profession to be proud of since people cannot eat unless someone grows the food. [This study was funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union.]
ISSN:2367-8925