Lasting Impacts of a Business Management Training Program for Turkish Women Farmers

To empower Turkish women farmers through education, Suzanne’s Project provided training in business planning and management and also included computer literacy, alternative production systems, soil productivity, plant nutrition, and other best management practices training. The courses resulted in 100% of the women completing most sections of an agricultural business plan by the end of the course using guided worksheets. A survey of women who participated in Suzanne’s Project 1.5 years after they took the course indicated that it had lasting, positive effects on them.  One hundred percent of the women felt more personally empowered after the course than before participating in Suzanne’s Project. 89% of the women had established short and long term goals as a result of participating in Suzanne’s Project. For 78% of the women, paying off debt was one of their short term goals.  Seventy-eight percent of the women had construction of more greenhouses as one of their long-term goals.  Sixty-seven percent of them wanted to build greenhouses to give their children a better life. Eighty-nine percent of the women improved their farming techniques as a result of participating in Suzanne’s Project. The types of changes they made are related to fertilization and insect and disease control. One hundred percentof the women changed or are planning to change their business management practices as a result of participating in Suzanne’s Project. Eighty-nine percent of the women said the networking aspect of Suzanne’s Project was important for them. It gave them a sense of comradery with other women and more confidence in their own abilities. While 100% of the women would take more classes and would recommend Suzanne’s Project to other women, all but one of them had suggestions for improvement. Fifty-six percent of the women indicated that the course needed to be longer.  Twenty-two percent said they would prefer to have evening courses. Women mentioned specific areas where they would like more training: computers, technical topics and cost accounting.  They would like similar courses to be offered to their husbands, but they appreciated the “women only” setting for their classes.