Rural training school for agricultural leaders

From March 21 to 25, 2016, 30 students and professors of the careers of agronomy, mechanics, administration and ecotourism of the Polytechnic High School of Chimborazo (Escuela Superior Politécnica del Chimborazo, ESPOCH), participated in the training workshop for co-facilitators of the ‘Rural Training School for Agricultural Leaders’ in the city of Riobamba. The ESPOCH is the first university in the country where this initiative of including the rural training school initiative in their curriculum will be applied.

The objective of the Rural Training School for Agricultural Leaders (m/f) is to connect the academic education system with the needs of agriculture and to develop a curricular grid that can be linked to the needs in the field.

The contents of the training programme for leaders was built based on the demands and needs of farmers, and was found through a survey to identify training needs. One of the main issues identified was the lack of leadership capacities in agriculture; therefore the training for leaders (f/m) shall be the main focus in the first module of the contents of the School, which consists of a total of six rural training modules. In the long term, the purpose is to establish a national Farmers’ Training Programme acknowledged by SETEC. This way, we aim at institutionalizing the process of rural training initiated in Chimborazo.

Thanks to this initiative, the students will have the opportunity to know agricultural communities located in our province of Chimborazo and then have real investigation tracks for their thesis. This way, they can apply in the field what they learn in the theoretical courses.

Marco Vivar Teacher at Espoch

In a first phase, university participants will be trained during 5 days in various topics related to leadership as a personal and group development, the importance of communication and exchange of knowledge, planning and organisation of rural development, institutional strengthening and advocacy processes.

In a second phase, the university students trained will transfer this knowledge and the tools learned to the associate producers of the agricultural communities in the province of Chimborazo.

For them [the producers] it is important to have qualified staff in their field: the facilitators will be trained at a local university, and know the reality of the agricultural field in the province of Chimborazo.

Nataly Pinto Alvaro Consultant of VECO Andino

The benefit for the producers in the communities is that they will become more professional and will be trained in business and commercial knowledge.

Lieve Van Elsen Regional Coordinator Andes de Trias

The rural training school is the fruit of a multiplayer dialogue and the result of the synergy between the following players: two international organisations that work with farmer associations; TRIAS and VECO Andino; two private universities, PUCE, ESPOCH and the consulting company OFIAGRO. Together, they want to foster a true joint training that promotes agricultural development.