AGRICULTURE AND ENTERPRISES SKILLS FOR WOMEN SMALLHOLDERS PROJECT BY FASO

Women on their farms

Women now make up the majority of the agricultural sector in Tanzania, but recent evidence suggests that not only is their productivity constrained by a lack of appropriate skills training , but also that they are particularly vulnerable to a range of changes including economic and environmental changes. Equipping women on small farms with the skills to improve production and manage change is therefore an important step towards securing livelihoods and reducing poverty. Lack of credit and capital, insecure land tenure and inadequate rural infrastructure make the application of new agricultural and enterprise strategies risky for women smallholders. FASO can play an important role in mitigating these risks by facilitating access to credit, helping women manage capital, working towards more secure land tenure, and helping women lobby local government for the provision of better infrastructure.Training is best approach FASO will use to empower women in agriculture and enterprises development. Those skills will base on:-

Training in financial management

To run their businesses successfully, the women needed to be able to control and plan their finances. To do this, they needed to be able to price their goods, work out their profit margins, and understand when they were making a profit. The ability to price inputs (including the cost of labour), establish market prices, and understand the difference between income and profits, are important. FASO found that there important to deliver training designed to enable women, individually or in groups, to improve the financial management of their production: Training helps women to distinguish between personal money and business finances – individuals can take loans from business. They learn to make sure their debtors are not too many, to find reliable sources of credit, to manage their stock flows, and simple booking to manage their cash flows.

Training in marketing, packaging and pricing

In addition to financial management, smallholders also require marketing training. This was frequently noted in the interviews as one of the women’s most important concerns, well ahead of technical skills. Improving production techniques, although important, is not sufficient to create significant changes in their circumstances. Achieving more efficient production and increasing yields did not address one of the most serious problems for small producers, and especially women smallholders: their lack of market power. Problems with accessing markets forced women to sell their goods on disadvantageous terms, and prevented women reaping the full benefits of their work.

Training to support group organization

The appropriate training FASO will provide can support group organization. Groups need training and support at various points in their development in order to function effectively, and to have a chance to become self sufficient. FASO found that their groups had very similar needs in this area of:

1. Training and guidance for group formation;
2. Training in formulating constitutions and by-laws, decision making procedures and electing leaders, to enable the transparent regulation of the group; and
3. Training in conflict management and leadership skills.

Training and guidance for group formation

The projects emphasized that groups that formed for the purposes of mutual support, as opposed to simply accessing credit, were more likely to operate successfully and have a better chance of ultimately becoming sustainable. Mostly of women started groups for three main reasons: socializing, access to savings and insurance, and changing practices and production

Training on access of credit in groups

A group approach (such as VICOBA) ensures that there is a collective responsibility for loans and reduces the individual risks. Project can play a valuable role in facilitating credit access for groups. It is important, however, that the initiative and responsibility for ensuring repayment remains with the group, as this is a key factor in ensuring the sustainability of credit access beyond the lifetime of a project. FASO Project will help groups to become more credit worthy by supporting proper group formation, and providing bookkeeping and literacy support.

FASO VICOBA Group training at Magereza, Moshi.

Training to enable transparent regulation of the group

The organizational training greatly improved the operation of the groups, and enabled them to make better use of their resources. Training in group management processes, such as establishing group regulations, leadership structures, and decision-making procedures, improved accountability within the group and reduced the potential for conflict between the executive and other members.

Training in conflict management and leadership skills

Training in how to discuss difficult topics with members and deal with challenging situations made the groups more stable and resilient, and therefore better able to achieve their goals over the long periods of time required.

 Benefits of enterprise training

The training can play an important role in helping prospective entrepreneurs become successful. For women, training in enterprise skills Is particularly valuable as they expanded into new areas. The entrepreneurship training is important in allowing producers in growth industries (including agriculture) to access more of the value chain associated with their product.

Women demanded a range of enterprise skills including bookkeeping, entrepreneurship and business management skills.

Developing the capacity of women and groups to take small, measured risks was both a major focus and a key challenge for each of the projects. While affecting this kind of change takes time, each project played an important role as a catalyst for this change.

IF YOUR A STAKEHOLDER ON AGRICULTURE, ENTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT, WOMEN EMPOWERMENT, etc CONTACT US FOR PARTNERSHIP TO IMPLEMENT THIS PROJECT..TOGETHER WE CAN!