The Special Fund for Agricultural Development (FEDA) has implemented a training plan in which some 40,403 rural producers and entrepreneurs have participated. In these two years, they have received knowledge about good practices and modern production technologies, as an alternative for the transformation and advancement of the Dominican countryside.
With the National Agricultural Training Program, the institution seeks to raise the standard of living of rural families and national food production, through free teaching of optimal strategies for successful breeding and farming, as well as agroecology, cooperatives, entrepreneurship, marketing, financial management and women’s empowerment, among others.
Economist and researcher Hecmilio Galván, director of FEDA, highlights that, with an investment of only 30 million pesos, the organization has carried out some 969 educational days throughout the country, benefiting technicians, community leaders, producers, members of associations and cooperatives, youth leaders and rural mothers.
“There is nothing more transformative than the generation of ideas and the transmission of up-to-date knowledge. We have launched what is perhaps the largest knowledge transfer program in the Dominican countryside, to reduce rural poverty and improve the competitiveness of agriculture,” he added.
The impact
The FEDA director stresses that, due to the resulting demonstration of improved production and increased income, people are interested in returning to their lands and families are joining together to work on the recovery of livestock and crops, “which would mean the salvation of the countryside.”
“Training not only modernizes rural areas,” he adds, “but also greatly increases production, because entrepreneurs and producers apply new knowledge to the development of breeding and crops through new investments: there is nothing that generates more agricultural entrepreneurship than training. There are thousands of new producers, thanks to FEDA training, not to mention the improvement of already established crops.
Galván says that the application of modern techniques raises the standard of living of producers and allows for family integration that guarantees generational change, for the continuity of productive systems and food and territorial security in the Dominican Republic.
Education program for the countryside
The Agricultural Training Program includes human and civic values, project management, appropriate techniques for managing enterprises, good practices and environmental preservation.
It focuses on sheep, goat, rabbit, bee, livestock and fish farming, as well as coconut, banana, cocoa, vegetables, lemon and avocado crops. Other aspects include security and entrepreneurship.
