Farmer Field Schools: opportunities for rural women

‘I am proud to have increased my income even further,’ says Venera Lipartia, a 56-year-old farmer woman from Senaki

“I became a widow at the age of 41 and was left alone with two children,” recalls Venera Lipartia. “I was a housewife - I didn’t even have a profession, so it was very difficult for me financially. I tried lots of things but unsuccessfully, and I had already started thinking of leaving my children and emigrating, when my father helped me: he gave me a cow and asked me to never lose hope. The milking that started with that cow saved me and my children.”

Venera then deepened her knowledge dairy farming at a local college. Soon, she started selling surplus milk and cheese in the Senaki market: “At first, I didn’t know how to sell cheese in the market. So now, whenever I see a young and inexperienced dairymaid, I remember how I too felt in the beginning, and I stand by her and try to encourage her.”

Today, Venera has regular customers and sells dairy products on site. She takes care of six cows and prepares fresh Imeretian cheese, along with Sulguni, cottage cheese and even Italian Caciotta. Venera learned European cheese technology through a UN Women and FAO project. She is the leader of the Senaki FFS and, apart from cheesemaking, has already acquired the necessary skills for running a business.

“Since the trainings, I look at everything from a business perspective. I am proud to have increased my income even further. I also learned more about women’s rights: before, I used to do all the housework, but now I tell my boys to help me with everything and share the work.”

In the future, she wants to open a milk factory and a farmer school, to gather motivated women and share her experience with them.

‘Women should know that economic activity is their right,’ says Olga Kikava, a 43-year-old farmer from the village of Narazeni

Olga Kikava, a teacher by profession, has a doctorate degree and experience in education and science. Currently, she devotes most of her time to working in the non-governmental sector while also engaging in the dairy business.

Olga started her dairy business after getting married: “When I got to Narazeni, I found three cows here. Back then, it was my father-in-law who looked after the cattle, but later my husband and I took up the business. Everyone doubted my ability to milk the cows, but now we have more than 15 cows already, and I’ve raised all of them.”

Olga takes orders for cheeses like Sulguni in advance and sells the product in the neighbourhood. At the same time, she is a member of the FFS. She has to go to another village for training, but she says that the knowledge is truly worth it: “I was impressed from the first meeting. Here, we still followed the traditional way of making dairy products, but the professional explained to us that there are modern standards, differing from ours, and taught us how to make new types of cheese.”

The training course on business management also changed the attitude of the woman farmer: “I realized that it is better to turn my hobby into a full-fledged business. Women should know that economic activity is their right.”

Since becoming a FFS participant, Olga shares her new-found knowledge with her fellow villagers. Now her main plan is to arrange a room for the preparation of dairy products—a space that complies with the standards learned through the trainings.

The Farmer Field Schools are part of the project “Promoting the Economic Empowerment of Women Farmers by Supporting Dairy Production through Farmer Field School (FFS) Approaches”, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.