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

AUTHOR(S):

Robin G. Brumfield, Burhan Ozkan, Rabia Vezne

TITLE

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

ABSTRACT

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.

KEYWORDS

Business management, best management practices, business plan, empowering women, female farmers, train-the-trainer, in-service training

REFERENCES

[1] Rutgers University. Suzanne’s Project Facebook page. 2011. https://www.facebook.com/suzannesproject.

[2] Rutgers University. Suzanne’s Project webpage. 2011. http://anniesproject.rutgers.edu/suzannesproject.html.

[3] Brumfield, R.G J. Carleo, S.J. Komar, J. Matthews, M. Melendez, R. Mickel, B. O’Neill, N. Polanin and B. Özkan. Empowering women who manage horticultural businesses in New Jersey and Turkey. Acta Horticulturea, (ISHS) Vol. 1126. 2016. Pp. 89-95.

[4] Özkan, B., R.G. Brumfield, J. Carleo, S.J. Komar, A. Lippet-Faczak, J. Matthews, M. Melendez, R. Mickel, M. Minard, B. O'Neill, and N. Polanin. Women Farmers' Empowerment: A case study of New Jersey and Turkey. Proceedings of the 14th Annual International Conference of the Global Business and Technology Association. New York City, NY. July 10-14, 2012.

[5] Brumfield, R. G., and K. Craig. 2016. Empowering Woman Farmers with Agricultural Business Management Training in Guyana. Published Abstract of Poster presented at the National Small Farms Conference, Virginia Beach, VA. September 20-22, 2016.

[6] Brumfield, R.G. and B. Ozkan. 2014. An International Study Abroad Project to Empower Women Farmers in Turkey. Annual Conference of the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS), Orlando, FL, July 28-31, 2014, p. 87, 2014 Annual Conference Program.

[7] Brumfield, R.G. and B. Ozkan. An International Service Learning Project to Empower Women Farmers in Turkey. Presented at the Women in Agriculture Educators National Conference. Indianapolis, IN, April 2-3, 2014.

[8] Brumfield, R.G., B. Özkan, and J. Carleo. The positive impacts on Turkish women farmers of an allfemale agriculture and business management training pilot program. Acta Horticulturae. (ISHS) Vol. 1132. 2016, pp. 81-88. http://www.actahort.org/books/1132/1132_11.htm.

[9] Brumfield, R.G. and B. Özkan. Gender Analysis of Labor and Resources in Greenhouse Vegetable Production in the Antalya Province of Turkey. HortScience Vol. 51, No, 12, December 2016, pp. 1547–1554.

[10] Özkan, B., 2000. Development Constraints Analysis for Gender Growing Greenhouse Vegetables in Antalya, Turkey, Acta Horticulturea, (ISHS) Vol. 536. 2000, pp. 411-417.

[11] Özkan, B., Ediz, D., Ceyhan, V., Goldey, P., 2000. Women's Role in the Vegetable Farming Systems in Antalya, Turkey: A Gender Analysis of Labour Participation and Decision-Making in the Agricultural Sector. Acta Horticulturea, (ISHS) Vol. 536. 2000. pp. 419-428.

[12] Moser, R.E. In-Service Training: A Fable. Journal of Cooperative Extension. 1965, pp. 75-76. https://www.joe.org/joe/1965summer/1965-2-2.pdf.

Cite this paper

Robin G. Brumfield, Burhan Ozkan, Rabia Vezne. (2017) A Train-the-Trainer Program to Train Extension Educators to Teach Business Management Skills to Women Farmers. International Journal of Economics and Management Systems, 2, 86-90