1DEVELOPING THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS OF FARMERS; SOME MYTHS EXPLORED

This paper explores the nature of skill training for farmers who wish to diversify their businesses. We begin by carefully examining the nature of entrepreneurial training and find that there are two distinctive dimensions; training as a set of managerial practices and training about entrepreneurial attitudes. These second elements are not only functionally different from the former, but appear to be conceptually distinct. After our theoretical discussion we present the case of an enterprising farmer. This farmer had decided to diversify from his dairy farm and set up a cheese making business. He appeared to do everything that the textbooks required; yet after initial success he closed his cheese making to concentrate on dairy farming. In our analysis of the case we show how the farmer’s entrepreneurial attitude was conditioned by social and contextual factors. We also show how one farm can be located in a segmentation framework which helps us to appreciate the impact of different factors. Thus we conclude that entrepreneurial training for farmers requires much more than managerial skills