Entrepreneurs get skills training business support through FAO project

Ninety-one Jamaican entrepreneurs have received skills training and business support through the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations Inclusive and Resilient Agri-Food System in Rural and Peri-Urban Territories of Kingston Project.

The project targeted vulnerable groups, mainly women and youth, in the Kingston Metropolitan Area.

The FAO implemented the initiative with Junior Achievement Jamaica and the Maia Foundation as service providers for entrepreneurship training and business plan development.

Country representative of the FAO for Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, Dr Crispim Moreira, said the main areas covered were financial, management, marketing and business planning training, consulting, and mentoring.

“The Maia Foundation provided onsite agricultural best practices for organic production of vegetables and fruits. The FAO provided financial support (seed money) for selected entrepreneurs and for the two ecovillages in Hannah Town and Denham Town. For the Junior Achievement Jamaica’s Cohort, five [of 50] business plans were selected and also funded by FAO with seed money,” he said.

The resource building activities have assisted these small and micro entrepreneurs to implement agri-food businesses with a sustainable, inclusive, and resilient approach to improve income and protect livelihoods.

Dr Moreira said the capacity-building initiative aligns with the Government‘s aim of strengthening food security by increasing entrepreneurial capacity and agribusiness opportunities for farmers.

“A major anticipated outcome of this approach is that the transformation of vulnerable livelihoods into economic viable businesses will enhance the investment potential and financial support for businesses and the agri-food system in the Kingston Metropolitan Area,” he said.

Dr Moreira also said selection for the incubation process aims to evaluate the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the idea, through the analysis of the pitch package.

“Consideration was made for the five thematic areas – entrepreneurship and citizenship behaviour, management, finance, technology and marketing. The most common pathway is to evaluate the entrepreneur’s capacity to implement the proposal (business model), based on prior disclosed criteria,” he said.

Junior Achievement Jamaica provided 60 participants, 50 of whom were females, with seven weeks of business incubator training, which culminated in a graduation exercise and business pitch presentation.

Training modules included fundamentals of entrepreneurship, business management, business ideation, market research, funding options, legal considerations and ethics, customer service, finances and conflict management.

Five of the participants also benefited from seed funding to implement the business plans conceptualised during the project.

For the Maia Foundation, the project operates in two communities located in West Kingston, with 31 beneficiaries having received in-class training on leadership, business registration and taxation, group dynamics and brand development.

They also received in-field training on land preparation, weed management and soil management. The cohort is currently finalising business plans and has also benefited from seed funding to support their farm production.

Meanwhile, another key output of the project was strengthening the technical capacity of government personnel to set up business incubators, provide the tools for their functioning and generate information and data for business analytics.

Through the project, 36 personnel from entities within the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining received capacity-building training.

The Rural Agricultural Development Authority; Agro-Investment Corporation; Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining (Agricultural Land Management Division); College of Agriculture, Science & Education and Jamaica 4-H Clubs were the entities that benefited.

Dr Moreira said the project aimed to deliver a governance platform and build capacity within relevant government divisions, and other stakeholders to scale up the pilot.

“Those stakeholders are the main network that would provide support afterwards. For this pilot, the selection was based on the indications of the technical steering committee. The next cohort is supposed to be selected based on the best practices available. The selection process for the ideation process (pre-incubation) uses an approach outlined from prioritised areas and the value chain, targeting the poorest, mainly women and youth,” he said.

The ‘Inclusive and Resilient Agri-Food System in Rural and Peri-Urban Territories of Kingston’ project, which began in 2021, will end in August after two years and six months of execution.

This initiative supports the implementation of nationally led, ambitious programmes to accelerate agrifood systems transformation by eradicating poverty, ending hunger and malnutrition, and reducing inequalities.

For more information on the work of the FAO in Jamaica, persons can visit fao.org.