Business skills workshops for leader farmers

Farming as a Business” workshops is set to be implemented by the Training Support to the Sugar Industry project. (Contributed Photo)

The European Union-funded Training Support to the Sugar Industry project has rolled out a series of “Farming as a Business” workshops to enhance leader farmers business development and financial management capacities.

This follows the successful implementation of the leader farmer workshops last year, which were attended by over 260 participants and farm advisory officers from across the sugar belt areas of Fiji.

“An important aim of the project is to strengthen mill workers’ and sugar cane farmers’ knowledge and skills to enable them to become more effective partners in the industry,” says Ambassador Andrew Jacobs of the Delegation of the European Union for the Pacific.

“This aim has become even more important now in the context of post-Tropical Cyclone Winston as farmers devastated by its effects pursue new knowledge and skills to help them regain their livelihoods and re-build their lives as quickly as possible”.

The first workshop was conducted on March 14-15, this year at the FSC Training Centre in Labasa and was attended by 18 leader farmers. The second workshop was conducted at Nodoga College on March 16-17. The next two workshops were held on March 21-22 at Seaqaqa College, Labasa and at the FSC Training Centre, Lautoka on March 23-24.

The Impact Partners (Fiji)/Fairtrade Coordination Unit (IPF/FCU) from the EU Coordination Unit is coordinating farmers to attend the workshops which are being delivered by Australia-Pacific Technical College (APTC).

IPF/FCU Fairtrade Relations and Development Coordinator and EU Coordination Unit Technical Manager, Mohammed Habib said that these workshops equip farmers with basic finance and business planning skills which they can then distribute to other farmers after the training.

He said that the training is an example of appropriately targeted and successful extension services which will allow for improvements for sugar farming businesses.

Habib added that this will lead to increased incomes for farmers, and the industry as a whole.

IPF/FCU and the Fiji Sugar Corporation (FSC) introduced the leader farmer concept after having seen the impact of similar systems in other parts of the world, such as the farmer field concept widely used in Asia and Africa.

This model for extension development and advisory services has assisted in the upskilling and capacity building of farmers.

IPF/FCU and FSC established a network of leader farmers in each of Fiji’s 23 sugarcane sectors to address the need to pass on technical information (technology transfer). This new round of training provides business skills to compliment the farmer’s technical skills.

Workshop facilitator and trainer, Kerri Leadbitter said that the second round of leader farmer training continues with a strong emphasis on the production of cane as well as supplementary crops (legumes, vegetables and fruits) and services associated with cane farming such as truck and tractor hiring. (PR)