USAID has provided commercial agriculture training to 25 womenfrom the Habat, Mata, Aiasa and Aiheken groups inthe Atabae administrative post in Bobonaro municipality through its Advance Agriculture program.
Youth and Gender expert for the Advance Agriculture ProgramSebastiana da Costa Pereira said the training was important to encourage women to change their mentality from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
She said it was important that women learnt about what the selling process and how to enrich the soil and plant the crops.
She said many women were also not aware about how farming could improve their families’ economic situation.
She said the 25 women are currently planting a variety of vegetables to sell in the market. USAID has also reached an agreement with Kmanek supermarket to stock their products, including vegetables, melons and long beans, so that each group makes a profit every week.
Besides providing training, the technical team also encourages women to invest their income in other business opportunities.
Head of the Mata Group Eulalia da Cruz said she was happy to take part in this training to improve women’s ability in agriculture and improve family economy.
“It is great training [about] how we can plant good products to compete in the market and increaseour family income,” she said.
