TOPIC 2,PART 1 WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A GOOD AGRIPRENEUR?

When thinking about the term entrepreneur, one is often scared away by role model giants like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk (or their national counterpart heroes). Like them or not, the message is: “entrepreneurship is not for me and rather connected with things I might use, but not necessarily appreciate.” The core of entrepreneurship seems to be to make billions no matter what, disrupting whole industries and changing the world as we know it.

When it comes to farming and agriculture, rural life in villages seem to be quite the opposite. Farms are often run over many generations. Farms are bound to the land and the community, the land, the trees, the fields, the neighbours, and staying in place. Disruption is what farmers do not want, stability and a stable family and community income are the main motives.

The project DEMETRA has studied the national literature in 6 countries and interviewed in depth more than 100 successful women agripreneurs and experts on agripreneurialism about the motivation and success factors of female agripreneurs as well as about their most important competencies.

The findings from these interviews have been based on the first-hand experience of women in a wide range of activities, from management of large scale quasi-industrial farms to tiny start-ups who revive traditional techniques of producing traditional foods. Mastering new technologies through better education has been discussed, as well as how cooperatives of women can strengthen rural communities and family farms being successfully transferred among generations via a diversification of activities through horticultural, touristic, and direct marketing activities. But engaging traditional rural farms is not the only thing that has been studied; the information gathered also includes representatives of the new movement of solidaristic agriculture, which is organised by young academics and engages urban populations directly in producing food in the near vicinity of their cities, which is distributed among the associates.

Let us look at the motives and competencies of actual female agripreneurs to see what the ideal characteristics of a female agripreneur are:

1. The wish to be one´s own boss, making decisions and gaining flexibility is the most important motive.

Agripreneurs need to be ready to take responsibility. They need to be decision makers.

2. Love for the product is the second most often quoted motive.

Agripreneurs need to love their product. As farm work is often connected to long hours and limited income, setbacks and resistance, a sense of mission, and connection to the product is required.

3. Continuation of the family farm is the third most cited motive.

Agripreneurs are connected to or enter a certain place and tradition that cannot be changed at will. They need to act responsibly in this place and find a balance between change and innovation and responsibility and commitment to this place beyond mere self-interest.

4. The mindset of an agripreneur is best expressed by one agripreneur from Slovenia:

“It is not a business, it is a way of life!”

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