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Press release…
Entrepreneurship and beekeeping training programmes, organized under an FAO project, have been completed, with filming and interviews conducted by the Communication Team from FAO’s Headquarters in Rome, as part of FAO’s 80th anniversary celebrations…
15 August 2025 Düzce, Türkiye – This week, FAO experts conducted Entrepreneurship and Business Management training sessions for female producers and young beekeepers in Düzce, as part of an FAO Technical Cooperation Programme (TCP) project,” Empowering rural women and youth through a diversified rural economy for the sustainable rural development in Düzce”. The training marks the beginning of capacity-building activities aimed at enabling rural women and youth to establish sustainable businesses and diversify the local economy. An FAO Communication Team from Rome also visited the project site during the trainings to record the sessions and conduct interviews with project beneficiaries, as part of FAO’s 80th anniversary celebration programme.
The two-day training session, held on 11–12 August, provided participants with an array of practical and comprehensive information. The first day covered strategic thinking, leadership and entrepreneurship challenges, business idea development and goal setting, as well as basic business plan preparation. Participants were taught the strategic perspective and leadership skills necessary to establish a successful business and learned how to transform their business ideas into concrete goals. The second day focused on practical marketing strategy design, communication and negotiation techniques, and financial management and financing principles. During these sessions, participants were given insights into marketing methods specific to rural areas, effective communication and persuasion techniques, and ways to access and manage financial resources.
Additionally, on 12 August, participants took part in a beekeeping training programme in Düzce Güven Village. The day started with a registration and welcome session, followed by an introduction to beekeeping training and basic information. After a brief information session on beekeeping and bee products, an interactive session helped to identified gaps in the participants’ knowledge of beekeeping activities. After lunch, the participants assisted with planning future beekeeping training sessions.
FAO-Türkiye Assistant Representative, Ayşegül Selışık, who participated in the training programme, noted in an interview during the event that, “Düzce has rich agricultural resources, a strategic location between Ankara and Istanbul, and high potential in agro-tourism and beekeeping. However, despite these advantages, rural women and young people face various challenges in entrepreneurship and income diversification. With this project, we aim to mobilize local resources and empower vulnerable groups to ensure their active participation in the sustainable rural development process.”
Esra Uzun, Director of Agriculture and Forestry in Düzce, highlighted the province’s potential for honey production during the training sessions: “Today, we produce 412 tonnes of honey annually from approximately 52 000 hives in our province. We are one of the leading provinces in beekeeping in Türkiye. However, we know that the true power of this potential will emerge through the efforts of our women and the energy of our youth. We want to make Düzce known throughout Türkiye, and even the world, for its high-quality honey, entrepreneurial women and productive youth. That is why we have launched this project in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Directorate General for European Union and Foreign Relations, and the Düzce Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry.”
Project beneficiaries Nurcan Tekneci, Mücahit Kılıç and Züleyha Ceylan shared their beekeeping experiences and the initiatives they have launched in Düzce during interviews. They also discussed how they plan to diversify their work and products and the steps they plan to take to enhance their capacity. Additionally, they shared with the FAO Communication Team how FAO could support them in this regard under the project, and their expectations from the project.
The visuals obtained by the FAO Communication Team will be shared at the FAO Museum in Rome during World Food Day celebrations on 16 October 2025, and through various media channels on international platforms…
