Empowering Farmers to transition from Subsistence to Market-oriented Agriculture

Traditional agriculture not only does not meet the living needs of farmers, but no longer meet the growing population and increasing demand for food products. For this reason, planning for agricultural development and food security is necessary. Hence, one of the main strategies is agricultural development through transition from traditional to market-oriented agriculture. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the strategies for empowering farmers in order to change the traditional agricultural approach to market-oriented one. The present study by reviewing the related literature aimed to provide a comprehensive review about the problems of traditional agriculture (subsistence), concept of market-oriented agriculture, and strategies of empowering farmers for transition to a market-oriented agriculture. The literature review showed that empowerment of human resources, improvement of the quality of products and establishment of specialized agricultural business institutions are the most important prerequisites for achieving agricultural development through market-oriented agriculture strategy. In addition, empowering farmers and raising their knowledge and skills will help to reduce rural poverty and deprivation, promote rural entrepreneurship and well-being, and achieve social justice and economic development. Therefore, it was suggested to build the capacity of farmers to take advantages of economic opportunities by providing the necessary training opportunities. In addition, participation of farmers through agricultural organizations, not only will create new employment opportunities and increase farmers income, but will led to the development of market-oriented agriculture.