Progress of Modern Agri-Food Business training at Wollo University
Last week, I described the start of the course and the launch of a new learning management system at Wollo University. Today I will tell you how it is going.
The course of modern agri-food business development is organised around two key elements: interdisciplinarity and a hands-on capstone project. Our trainees come from diverse disciplines, including agricultural economics, animal production, rural development and agriculture extension, and horticulture. The training covers agri-food value chains, business strategies, business ecosystems, data and budgeting, investment and risk assessment, business processes, information systems, and agri-food technologies. So far we have covered the first part of the course. The trainees have adopted the use of the learning management system well.
Daily activities
Every morning, Dr. Beshir Ali and I provide interactive lectures. In the afternoon the trainees work on their capstone projects in teams of 4 to 6 trainees. The assignment is to develop a business plan in the local context of Dessie (where the university is located) and the surrounding areas. Another requirement for the assignment is that the teams must be composed of trainees with different acadamic backgrounds.
Fascinating business ideas
The first reports of the trainees were submitted last Friday, and we had the opportunity to provide the trainees extensive feedback both on the content of the reports and the writing skills. Their business ideas are fascinating and important for the local context. One such business idea is opening a combined vegetarian restaurant and vegetable processing business. This reminded me of a position paper in which the researchers chose Ethiopia as an example of low level consumption of nutrients dense foods like fruits and vegetables. The paper was prepared by colleagues at Wageningen University in the context of the latest UN Food Systems conference. Yet another business plan aims to combine a dairy farm business with the establishment of a business center focussed on nutrition.
The progress so far is very good. The training will be completed on Thursday.
