Entrepreneurial Skills and their Role in Enhancing the Relative Independence of Farmers

Summary

Entrepreneurship is considered a crucial dynamic force in the development of small businesses in general. In agriculture, entrepreneurship is relevant because the farmers need to find ways to adapt their businesses to the structural changes in the environment of farming.
In this book entrepreneurship is described by its learnable and teachable aspects, elaborating the concept of entrepreneurial skill in farming. It constitutes the final report of the EU-funded research project Developing Entrepreneurial Skills of Farmers, summarising and synthesising the results.
Apart from elaborating a consistent concept of entrepreneurial skills in farming, the project analysed the factors influencing the learning of such skills and resulted in recommendations how to adapt the political, institutional and educational framework in order to foster their development. Furthermore, an e-learning tool for farmers, which contains a self-assessment for entrepreneurial skills, was developed in the project and is described in the book.