FAO/Mazen Haffar

“Now I can assess the market’s demands and my farm’s situation using SWOT analysis, then produce and promote suitable products to increase the profits. Thanks to FAO farmers business school for this mind-shifting opportunity,” Iman Al Nabhan, farmer and FBS participant in Hama governorate.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in the Syrian Arab Republic contributes towards a sustainable livelihood for small-scale farmers, by shifting the mindsets from subsistence farming to farming as a business.

To this end, FAO supported the establishment of five Farm Business Schools (FBS), in the governorates of Aleppo, Daraa, Deir Ez-Zor, Hama and Homs, reaching 75 farmers with participatory and learning-by-doing approaches. FBS promote the ideas and experiences exchange among participating farmers and share basic farm business management skills, such as record keeping, business planning and market research. The FBS promotes informed decision-making in the light of farm profitability.

As part of the curricula, FBS participants visited a successful farm to learn from its experience, observed the farm operations and management practices. Then eventually conducted a visit to potential markets to understand the integration between the market’s requirements and the mechanism of supply and demand.        

“After my visit to the successful farm and the market, I generated some new ideas for new products that can attract customers and fulfill their needs. I decided to become the owner of a profitable farm business,” added Mouna Al Mahmoud, FBS participant in Hama.

Improving the advisory services’ role to support farmers

The Rural Advisory Services play a key role to enhance farmers’ business management practices and empower them with information, knowledge, practices, and tools to operate more effectively and profitably.

FAO has trained 40 extensionist/public advisory providers on FBS, basic farm business management and market-oriented production concepts in addition to facilitation skills, then selected the most distinguished nine facilitators to lead the implementation of five FBSs across the five governorates. FAO’s vision, within its capacity building for public service technicians, will enhance the capability of national advisory services providers to become  certified FBS trainers/advisors to help with the transition of rural communities towards managing a “farm profitable business”.

Mukhles Diab, a facilitator at FBS in Hama, said: “FBS helped me develop a business-oriented mindset and expand my knowledge beyond Agri technical topics. Today, I am presenting new information to the farmers based on interactive and enjoyable learning approaches,”.