Obstacles and challenges of female entrepreneurship in agriculture

Učešće žena u poljoprivredi važan je element razvoja multifunkcionalne poljoprivrede i diverzifikacije ruralnoga gospodarstva jer donosi inovativnost, raznolikost poduzetničkih ideja, stvara nove proizvode i nova radna mjesta. Uz prepreke nerijetko su pred njih stavljeni i mnogi izazovi, koji im onemogućavaju nesmetanu realizaciju poduzetničkih ideja, ali i samog poslovanja, što pokazuje i podatak da svega 30 % poljoprivrednim gospodarstvima u Europskoj uniji (EU) upravljaju žene, a svega 23 % obiteljskih poljoprivrednih gospodarstava su u njihovom vlasništvu. Ciljevi ovog istraživanja su bili opisati zastupljenost žena i oblike ženskog poduzetništva u poljoprivredi EU, opisati programe i potpore kao pomoć za financiranje ženskog poduzetništva u poljoprivredi te empirijski utvrditi s kojim se preprekama i izazovima susreću žene prilikom pokretanja poslova te koje načine financirana poslovnih aktivnosti preferiraju. U istraživanju je sudjelovalo 60 žena poduzetnica u hrvatskoj poljoprivredi. Empirijskim istraživanjem dolazi se do zaključka kako su prepreke i izazovi ženskog poduzetništva u poljoprivredi povezani sa otežanim pristupom prijave na projekte EU fondova, otežanim pristupom financiranju i nedostatku alternativnih načina financiranja, te se najveći udio financiranja poslovanja financira vlastitim sredstvima poljoprivrednica.The participation of women in agriculture is an important element of the development of multifunctional agriculture and the diversification of the rural economy because it brings innovation, diversity of entrepreneurial ideas, creates new products and new jobs. In addition to obstacles, they are often faced with many challenges, which make it impossible for them to realize their entrepreneurial ideas, as well as the business itself, as shown by the fact that only 30 % of agricultural farms in the European Union (EU) are managed by women, and only 23 % of family farms are owned by them. The goals of this survey were to describe the representation of women and the forms of female entrepreneurship in EU agriculture, to describe programs and grants to help finance female entrepreneurship in agriculture, and to empirically determine what obstacles and challenges women face when starting a business and what types of financed business activities they prefer. 60 female entrepreneurs in Croatian agriculture participated in the research. Empirical research leads to the conclusion that the obstacles and challenges of women's entrepreneurship in agriculture are related to difficult access to applying for EU fund projects, difficult access to financing and the lack of alternative ways of financing, the largest part of business financing is financed by the farmers' funds