31st
August 2010
Farmers
get Business Training
 Farmers
in non-traditional areas of the agriculture
industry have benefitted from some much needed
training in Leadership and Business. The targeted
farmers are from the Cocoa, Pineapple and Cut
Flower sectors.
The Leadership and Business Training workshops
were conducted by Mrs. Eulalie Scobie-Henry
of The Imagination Institute of St. Lucia along
with her associate Brian Walcott and Converge
Solutions Inc.
Consultant Mrs. Scobie-Henry said the key objective
of the workshops is to equip farmers with the
requisite business skills to enable them to
compete favorably and source niche markets for
their crops, under the Fair Trade label. She
says the long-term goal is to help farmers move
from producing at the subsistence level into
a more commercialized production cycle which
should in the long run, enhance their economic
well-being.
Broad headings covered at the workshops were
Business Management, Accounting & Finance,
Information Management and Security. Topics
included customer relations, branding, marketing,
bookkeeping, cost management, cash flow management
and profitability. Farmers were also enlightened
on the basic use of computers, word processing
and spreadsheets.
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Scobie-Henry
described the workshops as highly interactive
and reported that they were well attended
by farmers. The information from the workshop
has been packaged for farmers in the form
of a kit which they can refer to at any time
to refresh what they’ve learnt and put
it into practice. The consultant hopes that
farmers will use the knowledge and skills
acquired at the workshop to adopt a more business-like
approach to their farming enterprises.
The
workshops were held in the north and south
of the island over a period of two days. The
first was held at the IBRC at Odsan on Wednesday
August 25 and the second at the Vieux Fort
Town Hall on Thursday August 26.
