The Guyana Learning Route was attended by 11 representatives of 8 farmers’ organizations of the country: Gibraltar/Fyrish Farmers Association, Pomeron Exporters and Producers Association, West Berbice Sheep and Goat Association, Pomeron Bekeepers Association, Mocha Arcadia Multipurpose Agricultural Cooperative, Central Mahaicony Perth Village Farmers Association, the Blue Flame Women’s Group and Medicine from Trees Group.

As part of this five-day learning process, the participants visited two productive experiences. The first one was the enterprise “Pomeroon Rose Products” in Region Nº2 and led by the entrepreneur Mrs. Rosamund Benn, who shared her know-how about the development of an entrepreneurial business, the importance of developing a properly labeled and bottled product, her strategies to access markets through promotion and dissemination in social networks, as well as the importance of developing alliances and networks that contribute to the commercialization of the products. The second experience visited was the Central Mahaicony Perth Village Farmers Association in Region Nº5, where participants learned about the challenges associated with value-added production and the maintenance of a processing facility, the importance of integrating young people into the organizations and the record keeping aspects.

At the same time, in the internal workshops developed during the Route, the participants described their activities and challenges as farmers organizations along the value chain as well as their particularities in terms of their organizational structure, administrative management, sustainable production and marketing.

Through the development of innovation plans, participants established proposals to improve the operation of their organizations in terms of increasing productivity, improving the quality of their products, strengthening the capacities of their associates in terms of strategic planning and market access, adding value to their products -by improving logos and packaging-, and learning about other relevant practices for the development of their businesses.

Thus, the development of this Learning Route has not only enabled participants to analyze their own organizational contexts and identify critical points for improving their businesses, but also to begin to propose specific actions to improve their participation in the respective value chains. The exchange with outstanding experiences and with the same peers participants, also represents an advance in terms of empowerment and the generation of networks and national alliances that will allow future collective actions to be triggered at the policy dialogue level.

As future actions, the participants will validate their innovation proposals with the members of their organizations. These proposals represent a first link towards the introduction of changes and transformations that will make their businesses more profitable and reinforce the associative capacities of their organizations.