On November 23rd , the Agricultrices du Québec (AQ) launched Dimension E, one of the Federation’s most important projects.
(Photo website DIMENSION E)
The objective of Dimension E is to provide support or better tools for female agricultural producers or aspiring female agricultural producers at all stages of their entrepreneurial project. “This is a large-scale project by virtue of its deployment, its scope and the concrete support it will provide to female agricultural producers, regardless of where they are in their entrepreneurial project”, said Marcel Groleau, general president of L’Union des producteurs agricoles (UPA), at the launch which brought together nearly 150 people.
Services and tools accessible online
The female agricultural producers in the province now have access to a financing directory, in the form of a search engine, which will direct them to financing programs adapted to their specific entrepreneurial profile.
They can also benefit from a documentation center, set up in collaboration with the Centre de Référence en Agriculture et Agroalimentaire du Québec (CRAAQ), as well as from co-development units and advisory services from legal and tax experts. Everything is accessible online via the Dimension E website.
“The idea was to bring together all of the information on women agricultural entrepreneurship in one place in order to make it easily and quickly accessible to female producers”, adds Diana Toffa, Project Manager, Dimension E.
Personalized support
Les Agricultrices du Québec will support women producers throughout their research and development process. “My journey was quite difficult when I started in beef production. No one took me seriously, explains Mélanie Rivard, an agricultural producer from Abitibi. Through resilience, research, networking, training and involvement, I managed to find my place, but the tools and services of Dimension E could have facilitated and accelerated my integration into the agricultural community. It will now be an unmissable for those who are starting out in agriculture or making progress in this field”, says the producer.
Deploying Dimension E
Over the next few weeks, thirteen video clips retracing the journeys of female agricultural producers will be unveiled. “We wanted to highlight the common challenges of women agricultural entrepreneurs, who nevertheless have very different experiences and productions. Dimension E was developed to address these common challenges experienced by women farmers”, explains Jeannine Messier.
Note that a free conference on the global legal framework governing agricultural activities in Quebec will be offered by Me Charlotte Bourget-Rousseau of BHLF Avocat, on November 18th , from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., on Zoom. Producers will also be able to participate in a co-development unit on November 26th at 9:30 am on Zoom, too. You can find out about these activities and register for them by visiting dimension-e.ca/activites.
