Developing ATU’s staff competences to design a commercial female oriented Agri-Business course
The importance of agriculture to Ghana is immense, however the contribution of agriculture to the country’s GDP has been declining. Primarily this is due to the sector focusing on production of staple crops and narrow value chains. Agriculture development is further constrained by the fact that education and training in this sector does not focus on wider commercial opportunities and business oriented farming, particularly for female enterprises.
The project therefore addresses these issues by training ATU staff to design a short course that focuses on:
- Agri-business value chains, focusing on downstream activities, eg, added value products, processing, packaging, import substitution and market linkages.
- Agri-business start-up and development, that focuses on the wider opportunities of commercial farming that attracts young & female entrepreneurs.
- Agri-business female entrepreneurs, as women represent a large proportion of agriculture workers, but operate mostly at the lower, less profitable end of value chains
Type of activities carried out:
Principally four main training activities undertaken:
- Entrepreneurship & Business start-up skills: Personal profiling; Small business cases, Analysing financial figures; Counselling practice
- Agribusiness value chain skills: Identification of agri value chains in Ghana; Agribusiness case studies; Experience exchange; Practical exercises
- Female entrepreneurship skills: Identification of challenges limiting female enterprise; Experience exchange; Female entrepreneur speakers and advocates; Practical exercises; Intervention design to promote female entrepreneurs
- Business training & coaching skills: Participants profiling in training styles & competences; Role playing; Internet research; Network development; Counselling & communication skills development, etc.
