Over half of the worlds agricultural producers are women,yet men still receive more and better training. A report released highlights the need for agricultural and enterprise training for women smallholders to ensure poverty is reduced in developing countries. Training for Rural Development: Agriculture and Enterprise Skills for Women is the first report issued by the City & Guilds Centre for Skills Development (CSD) that focuses on rural development. It investigates the kinds of training that empower rural women to respond successfully to the key challenges they face such as low literacy levels and multiple domestic obligations,and demonstrates the appropriate training that needs to be implemented. Research shows that giving women farmers the same inputs and education as men could increase yields by 20%[2; despite this women continue to receive only a small proportion of the appropriate training compared to men[3. CSDs report has been launched in response to growing concern around the lack of skills development for women smallholders. By bringing together existing literature on the challenges women face and drawing out lessons from successful projects in India and Ghana the report makes key recommendations for training going forward that is tailored to suit women. The recommendations propose a more focused approach to training ensuring that projects effectively engage with women and their current challenges,use existing community structures,introduce new skills in manageable stages and work with local government structures to ensure long term change. Commenting on the report,Nalin Jena,World Bank,said: 'In India,like many developing nations,agriculture is one of the keys to reducing poverty. The challenge of providing effective training for rural development is critical. A large proportion of India's agricultural producers are women and yet their training needs are often overlooked.' Trainers from the Ghanaian Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) for example,recently ran training sessions that found illiteracy and low education levels to be a major issues in terms of learning skills such as record keeping and managing finances.
