Damascus-Sana
Establishing new alternatives and determining the best model for rural development according to the circumstances in which Syria is going through, in addition to preparing specialized support programs for each rural product and marketing it. The most prominent of what was proposed by a number of academics, specialists and experts in the field of rural development representing the public and private sectors during a specialized workshop.
During the event held today in the Rida Said Hall at the University of Damascus on the reality of rural development, which comes as a continuation of the Agricultural Sector Development Forum, the participants stopped at the challenges facing rural women in developing their products and achieving profit, especially the absence of strategies and planning for rural development, the absence of integrated implementation programs and the weakness of budgets compared The required needs in addition to the lack of coordination between the supervising authorities.
The participants unanimously agreed on the necessity of adopting a new methodology in the current period based on working on the project to support and market the rural product by finding the market before production to ensure the achievement of the project's goal of improving the standard of living of families in the countryside and developing their products and upgrading them in the field of quality, specification, packaging, promotion and pricing in a way that contributes to increasing Profits, quantities of production and achieving greater job opportunities for these families.
The participants demanded the necessity of integrating rural women in development plans and programs, introducing and highlighting their products, opening a direct communication channel between rural women and the consumer, and creating a spirit of competitiveness between products in terms of product quality, packaging and diversity, in addition to the existence of appropriate organizational structures for rural development within the Ministry of Agriculture, especially with regard to units. Financing, manufacturing, marketing, and establishing small enterprises to absorb the outputs of micro enterprises, stressing the need for marketing centers for rural women’s products.
The workshop was attended by the Minister of Agriculture and Agrarian Reform, Engineer Muhammad Hassan Qatana.
Bushra Barhoum