DEMETRA: Developing Entrepreneurial skills & tools for woMEn in agriculTure in Rural Areas

In 2019, COPA's European Women's Committee addressed for the first time the gender gap in European agriculture. The conference concluded that both at the European and member-state levels, further ...

The overall objective of DEMETRA was to facilitate the development of agricultural entrepreneurship skills and tools for women in rural areas. The project aimed to establish a transnational network of partners in an attempt to share practices, experiences and case studies in the area of women's agripreneurship. Also, DEMETRA’s goal was to develop an in-depth analysis of the context in which women agripreneurs were called to act by identifying, their level of education, competences, their educational needs and the gaps and obstacles they face, with major scope to update policy recommendations at national and European level. The project focused in developing an innovative, interactive educational curriculum to help women acquire an innovative, greener and more sustainable mindset in agricultural entrepreneurship. It also promoted the development of a digital tool that enabled women with limited access to education, to access training material and up-to-date knowledge from experts and successful practitioners. Lastly, DEMETRA focused on connecting women agripreneurs with the labour market by bringing them into contact with agricultural stakeholders while at the same time enhancing awareness of gender inequalities in the sector.

Several activities were carried out, all of which were interrelated and ensured the achievement of all objectives and the maximum impact of the project. These included 3 Transnational Project Meetings (TPMs), monthly online meetings and a short-term staff training which took place in Maribor, Slovenia. This aimed to train trainers on the DEMETRA platform and curriculum and provided them with an opportunity to visit rural areas and meet women who have thrived in this field. During M18, Pilots were implemented in each partner country with a total of 120 participants. These focused on the testing of the curriculum and platform and enabled optimisation of the project’s results. Also, mentoring was implemented in, each partner country which offered consultation to women who were looking to develop their business ideas. This resulted in the production of 21 videos which are available on DEMETRA platform and website. Lastly, 6 multiplier events took place, one in each country which helped to create an extended network of stakeholders. Lastly, a comprehensive dissemination strategy has been implemented throughout the lifespan of the project, along with an extensive exploitation plan for the sustainability of the project upon its completion.

Initially, as part of PR1, the DEMETRA Matrix of Competencies and Policy Recommendations Report had been implemented. This is a detailed report on educational gaps for women agripreneurs. Based on PR1, The Green Agripreneurs’ DEMETRA Curriculum (PR2) had been created. This included a special focus on organic farming and entrepreneurship and provided practical training on skills and competences development. Following these, the DEMETRA: the all-encompassing platform was developed as part of PR3. The platform was a collective space for the target audience and included all of the training material short videos related to each module, practical activities and tests and the 21 mentoring videos that have been developed as part of PR5, DEMETRA mentoring scheme, which provided support and consulting to women who wanted to develop their business ideas in the sector. Lastly, the project included a pilot course, which was designed to test the developed curriculum and platform by external stakeholders and provide optimisation to all project results. Lastly, during the train the trainers activity, trainers had the opportunity to visit rural areas and meet women who had made an impact in agriculture with their innovative businesses.