Deadline: 22-Mar-22
How can farmer entrepreneurs improve their income and well-being through effective collective action? Join this course and take home many practical tools and approaches for promoting farmer entrepreneurship and strengthening farmers’ organisations.
‘Farmer Agency: A Practical Approach for Farmer-Inclusive Food Systems’ course approaches farmers as entrepreneurs and their organisations as key actors for development (farmer agency). Local agro-economic development is taken as a team sport, which requires farmers’ collaboration with a range of private and public sector actors.
The central question of the course is how farmers can improve their income and well-being through effective collective action of their organisations and improved relations with other stakeholders. The general objective of the course is to provide new insights, practical tools and options for farmer-inclusive agro-economic development, aiming at enhancing farmer benefits in terms of food, income and trade.
Course Programme – Main Orientations
The purpose of the course sessions is to equip you to become a change facilitator in your country and organisation for farmer inclusive agri-business development. The course has two main orientations:
- Analysis for farmer inclusion: The course provides the opportunity to examine and practice approaches and tools related to farmer entrepreneurship, governance and management of farmers’ organisations, value chain analysis and development, market system stakeholder collaboration and the policy environment. The approaches and tools aim to explore and enhance farmers’ involvement in the design, implementation and adaptation of rural development programmes.
- Farmer action: The course explores six complementary areas for farmers’ collective action: Agro-inputs; Agricultural practices; Agri-finance; Post-harvest value addition; Market relations and sales and Policy and business environment. It is emphasised that, to bring about effective change and to develop their business, farmers have to collaborate with different actors in these areas.
Elements
The course is about designing and facilitating farmer-inclusive development. Key elements are:
- Realities of smallholder farmers
- Governance, management and performance of farmers’ organisations
- Value chain analysis
- Improved stakeholder collaboration
- A more enabling environment for farmer-inclusive development.
What will you learn?
Upon completion of the course you will:
- To interpret farmer entrepreneurship in their own context;
- To use methods and tools for farmer-inclusive agro-economic development;
- To profile farmers to reveal their diversity and tailor interventions;
- To assess the governance, management and performance of farmers’ organisations;
- To analyse an agro-economic system including value chain and stakeholder mapping;
- To strategize for improving farmers’ relations with other stakeholders, such as sourcing companies, financial institutions, research, extension and others;
- To plan and accompany the development of agribusiness cases piloted by farmers and their organisations.
For whom is this course?
Are you eager to promote farmer inclusion? If so, then this three-week course, emphasising farmer entrepreneurship and collective action, is for you. They welcome professionals from farmers’ organisations, governmental organisations, private sector, civil society organisations, universities, research and extension from different regions of the world. Proficiency in English is required.
Technology Requirements Online Learning
The short courses of 2021 are offered online. Minimum technical and software requirements for online learning courses are:
- Stable internet connection: required to access the online learning platform and assignments (at least 3G mobile network).
- Hardware requirement: access to a laptop, smartphone, tablet or a personal computer with webcam and microphone.
Application Procedure
- Register for the course of your interest by clicking the ‘apply’ button on the webpage of this course. A registration form will open;
- Fill in the required fields of the registration form. Please note to write your date of birth without a zero;
- Before you submit, check your details on the final page of the registration form;
- After submitting, you will receive a confirmation email. Make sure to directly click on the link in the email to confirm your registration. Without your confirmation, your registration cannot be processed;
- If you apply as an OKP or MSP-scholarship candidate, you will receive a registration letter for the scholarship at the beginning of the scholarship cycle.
- If you apply as a self-funded participant: they will forward your request for acceptance to the course leader. This can take some time as it depends on the coordinators’ schedule (1-3 weeks);
- If you’re accepted into the course programme, they will send you an admission letter by e-mail.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3E3GWJ0