Philippines

Empowering the entrepreneurial skills of women vegetable growers through farmer business school

This study investigates the effectiveness of programs that teach women vegetable growers in selected villages in the Philippines entrepreneurial skills.

Dr

Elizabeth Carig

(She/Hers)

Quirino State University

Filipino

Farmer business school is an effective method in improving the skills of women vegetable growers.
Elizabeth Carig Tweet

This study investigates the effectiveness of programs that teach women vegetable growers in selected villages in the Philippines entrepreneurial skills.

Key Takeaways

The project witnessed an improvement in terms of the financial and business aspects of selling their vegetables.

How To Apply Insights

There should be more funding for business schools that train women vegetable growers.
There should be more collaboration with local governments.
In terms of sustainability, universities could speak with local governments who have funding due to internal revenue alignment – this could be used for scaling up projects such as business school of women vegetable growers.
It is important to train not only the women, but also people from the local government who need to understand the process of implementing a farmer business school. This responsibility to fund such programs should be on the local governments rather than on the universities themselves.

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About this research

2021

International Journal of Agricultural Technology

Peer Reviewed

Business & Management

Mixed Methods

Recommended for

Business & Corporate

Why This Research Matters

The purpose of the research is to understand effective measures that would improve female vegetable growers skills and capacity that would enable them to effectively sell and market their products on top of already knowing how to grow vegetables.

Findings & Research Conclusions

In terms of their growing characteristics, results showed that majority of the participants were within the 1-10 years growing experience bracket. The mean vegetable cultivation experience was 12.34 years. Majority of the participants had .01-.5 hectares of farms, but the average farm size was about 3,200 square meters.

Research's methodology

The study utilised 111 women participants who are dominated by 50 years old, married, high school graduates with five household members and earned a monthly income of below PhP5,000.00. Their vegetable cultivation experience were averaged of 12.34 years and their averaged farm size were about 3,000 square meters. The most common grown vegetable included the ingredients used in “pinakbet” Filipino delicacy, which are grown at least 1.5 times a year.

However..

There were challenges with having to simultaneously monitor the vegetable growers activity while teaching in the college as a faculty member. Funding is another limitation – without which these programs could not sustain themselves.

Reference this research

Naval, R., Carig, E., Dolojan, F. M., & Julian, B. S. (2021). Empowering the entrepreneurial skills of women vegetable growers through farmer business school. International Journal of Agricultural Technology, 17(3), 991-1000.