Knowledge and skill development training program – Day 2
On Day 2 of the empowering women and youth in the olive business through knowledge and skills development training program a collaboration between PODA and OliveCulture, the participants at the Remote Technical Assistance (RTA) center in village Nara Mughlan, district Chakwal, took their skills to the next level. Today, our enthusiastic rural women and youth dived into the art of soap making and crafted a variety of beautiful and fragrant soaps, exploring exciting flavors like moringa, olive, coffee, and more.
#PODAPakistan #OliveCulture #EmpoweringWomen #EmpoweringYouth #SkillDevelopment
Knowledge and skill development training program – Day 1
ODA and OliveCulture are engaging rural women and youth in income-generation activities along the olive value chain. Empowering women and youth in the olive business through knowledge and skills development training program where the participants are learning “Olive Soap & Cosmetics Making” at Remote Technical Assistance (RTA) center in village Nara Mughlan district Chakwal.
#OliveCultureProject #Entrepreneurship #SkillsDevelopment
Facilitating & Empowering Women with Digital Solutions
PODA Climate-smart Agriculture Training Center in district Chakwal is now facilitating and empowering women with digital solutions. The Center is now fully equipped with a Weather Station supported with soil moisture meter, hygrometer and other internet of things (IoT) tools to provide real-time weather advisory services translated in local language by using cloud mobile networks. It is helping women farmers in the district to receive advanced information about weather forecasts to plan their field operations and promote learning digital skills to adapt climate-smart agriculture practices. Also focuses on women in precision agriculture as abrupt changes in temperature and rainfall cycles have been observed where the planting dates and management practices of major crops need area-specific information to grow in a favorable environment to meet yield potential. Improved seasonal weather forecasting by PODA will help smallholder farmers, particularly women, to prepare for extreme weather events such as drought, floods, hailstorm, heat waves etc.
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Since 2006, PODA is providing Organic Kitchen Gardening Trainings and Vegetable Tunnel Farming as per IFOAM’s (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements) standards. PODA facilitates marginalized rural women farmer groups through innovative vegetable farming and training to produce seasonal and off-season produce. The objectives of the program are:
• Build the capacity of the rural community, particularly women farmers and youth, to produce good quality seeds and strengthen technical skills to climate adaptability and response.
• Promote livelihoods opportunities contributing to poverty alleviation through value-addition and handling/packaging of fresh fruits and vegetables.
• The transformation of indigenous farming practices into advanced cropping systems for natural resource conservation such as soil and water promotes an eco-friendly environment.
PODA Climate-smart Agriculture & Sustainable Livelihoods Program: PODA promotes the latest information and innovative agricultural technologies with farming communities, particularly women farmers. PODA also facilitates the empowerment of rural women farmers through climate-smart farming education, rainwater harvesting, small ruminant management, and crop seeds/varieties resilient to extreme weather conditions.
In 2010, PODA established Climate-smart Sustainable Agriculture Farm to test the latest technologies and climate-adaptive crop varieties/seeds to evaluate the micro-climatic adaptability and then translate into local language to disseminate among networks of women farmers. The key objective of the farm is to facilitate and educate rural communities in fruits/vegetable production and value-addition to start small business enterprises.
Promoting Rainwater Harvesting for Drinking, Domestic & Food Production: PODA is conducting capacity-building training sessions for the rural communities, particularly women and youth, to adapt multiple technologies regarding rainwater harvesting. Under this program, they learn rooftop rainwater harvesting and purification techniques, yard rainwater conservation, and field storage of rainwater for food production.
Wheat Seed Bank Set-up Trainings: PODA provides training to women to make wheat Seed banks in villages. The program aims to produce quality wheat seed to improve per/acre yield with minimum input cost. All the quality seed certification standards and agronomic operations from sowing to storage are taught during trainings
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Agriculture & Small Business Education
Agriculture & Small Business Education Program provides hands-on training,step-by-step guidance and mentoring to youth, women and marginalized communities on how to start their own business in agriculture, handicrafts or any relevant enterprise that can increase their skills and income. Current projects under this program are:
- Training on Setup of Grape Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Vegetables Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Wheat Farm & Seed Bank
- Training on Setup of Tunnel Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Organic Chicken Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Goat Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Potato Farm & Nursery
- Training on Setup of Paper Mache Handicraft Business
- Training on Setup of Plastic Bag Recycling Handicraft Business
- Training on Setup of Graphic Designing & Repair
