First results from Farm Inc project

First results from the Farms Inc project designed to help farmers better market and brand their produce show that farmers gain a better understanding of marketing principles in the agriculture sector through experiential learning.
 
The main objective of the Farm Inc project is to produce a training tool to help market produce, tailor-made to the needs of farmers in three target countries: Greece, Italy and Latvia. There is a great potential for regional and local products in the market, but a lack of marketing strategies to enable European agricultural entrepreneurs to compete with the international network and structures of multinational companies. Research started with the creation of a questionnaire, based on a self-assessment approach and integrated with results arising from Focus Groups held in each country. The questionnaire has been distributed to all agriculture sector stakeholders: farmers and their associations, agricultural entrepreneurs, VET experts, local and national public bodies and their intermediaries.
 
What do farmers want? Analysis of the results demonstrated that farmers and agricultural entrepreneurs' preferences are very similar in all target countries. Farmers prefer learning through experience rather than classroom training, as demonstrated by the high score reached for activities such as: participation to fairs, conferences, farm and study visits, field day. VET providers, on the other hand, highlight the need to support practical experience with some basic theoretical background (blended learning). Classroom training is going to help farmers to acquire basic marketing concepts, while more advanced skills will be learned through experiential learning.
 
An interactive e-book will be created as an integrated training tool. It will contain basic marketing principles for the agricultural sector as well as practical experiences (case studies, field visits etc). The latter will be selected ad hoc by each partner country according to national needs, in order to ensure a relevant tool for all farmers involved. The output is innovative because all basic theoretical concepts, practical experiences and self-assessment exercises are integrated into a single training tool, proposed to become the vademecum for marketing in the agricultural sector.
 
Next steps in the project require the involvement of all farmers aspiring to become agricultural entrepreneurs. All farmers interested in the project activities are invited to propose their farm as a case study, participate to classroom training and take part to farm and study visits. For further information, please see http://www.farminc.eu/