As smallholder farmers switch to producing for the commercial
market, they face a steep learning curve. To select a product and
to market it effectively, they must understand both their immediate
market situation and how the whole value chain works. Individual
smallholders probably cannot grow enough on their own, so they have
to get organised and sell their produce as a group. That takes
leadership, organisation, mutual trust and a common vision. They
need to access a range of business services: inputs, financial
services, training, market information, transport, government
support, and so on. And they need to plan their businesses: analyse
their potential markets, identify customers, negotiate with buyers
and suppliers, work out their costs and expected income, look at
their longer term position in the value chain, develop a business
plan, and put the plan into operation. How best to help groups of
smallholders to gain these skills? This book describes a "learning
alliance" approach that combines training, practical assignments to
develop an enterprise, on-the-job coaching, and the sharing of
experiences among several groups of farmers. The approach was
piloted in Ethiopia from 2007 to 2010 with 18 groups of farmers in
Amhara, Oromia, the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples
(SNNPR) regional states. It covered a wide range of commodities,
from staple grains to dairy, coffee, legumes, honey and incense.
Where normal training courses impart skills that farmers find hard
to apply to their own situation and soon forget, the learning
alliance enables them to apply new skills to their own situations,
reinforces their new knowledge, and gives them hands-on, guided
experience with building their own businesses. That makes a
learning alliance a highly effective way of enabling farmers to
build their businesses in a sustainable way.
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