Entrepreneurship

Farm business life cycle
Just as the farm business develops over time, farmers’ 
skills and competencies also develop this development 
can be planned to follow the same stages of the business’ 
development from start-up to survival to growth to 
expansion. Each stage has a unique learning focus that 
builds on the capacity developed during the previous stage.
Approaches to building capacity
There are three main approaches to building 
entrepreneurial capacity: formal education, formal 
training programmes and non-formal capacity 
building programmes. Extension services focus on 
formal training programmes and non-formal capacity 
building programmes. Training programmes should 
be purposefully designed following a formal analysis 
of training needs. Non-formal capacity building 
programmes include awareness workshops, action 
learning workshops, combined extension and training, 
business clinics, success case replication, study groups, 
farm field schools, farm business schools, counselling, 
learning networks and electronic networking.