Agro Entrepreneurship & Market Facilitation Course

Markets are important for rural transformation and poverty alleviation. They provide the direct means through which the poor participate in economic activity as producers (farmers, business groups); as employees (providers of labor); and as consumers (of goods and services).

Working with smallholder farmers to design and set up new income-generating enterprise opportunities on the other hand is complex. It requires taking time and dedication to ensure success. This training programme aims at building the agro-enterprise capacity of rural development practitioners to enable them facilitate the market integration of the most vulnerable beneficiaries. The participants will be guided through participatory processes for identifying market opportunities and developing viable agro-enterprises that are sustainable and which are geared towards improving the incomes of rural farmers, processors, and traders.

DURATION

5 days

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This course is intended for various actors in the Agriculture Extension (Agricultural extension officers, senior agricultural officials and policy makers) working with communities, in governments, funding agencies, Research organizations and non-government organizations among others for Agriculture support activities and other Development programmes.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of the course, participants will:

• Help farmers engage with markets.
• Apply skills in participatory methods for farmers in Market analysis and decision making.
• Guide in market identification and selection of attractive enterprise options, based on information gathered from the market and market chain.
• Build agro-enterprise skills within the community so that groups can continue to effectively engage with the marketplace in the future.
• Able to identify what the spirit of entrepreneurship is, who has it, how to identify it and how to harness this spirit to promote sound business development.
• Understand the tools for business planning.
• Able to identify tools for working with a community.

TOPICS TO BE COVERED

• Basic concepts in agro-entrepreneurship
• Overview of the participatory agro-enterprise development approach
• Developing an enterprise or intervention action plan
• Project site selection and evaluation
• The basics of marketing
• Market chain analysis
• Market opportunity identification
• Market research
• Collective marketing
• Product screening and market opportunity identification
• Tools for working with a community
• Management and partner selection
• Institutional preparation and planning
• Evaluating progress and scaling up
• Action planning for knowledge & skills application
• Application of data analysis in marketing
• Introduction GIS and RS for marketing
• ICT role in agro-based marketing

Others Details

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