Building Social Capital and Leadership Skills for Sustainable Farmer Associations inMorocco

摘要

egions. Recently, government programs have focused special attention on actionsencouraging farmer associations and strengthening value-chains for agricultural commodities.Small rural producers, however, lack the leadership skills and strategic planning capabilities toaccomplish this initiative. The Morocco Rural Leadership Program connects University ofMinnesota Extension staff with faculty at the National School of Agriculture, Meknès (ENA) inMorocco to co-design and teach a leadership cohort program for farmers. Its intent is to buildsocial capital for sustainable value-chain development. Program evaluation revealed that theprogram not only increased leadership capacity but also grew farmers’ social capital and led tobehavioral and procedural change in farmer associations.