en 
es
- Valencian Isabel Tomás Castelló has started her own agro-transition advisory and consultancy business thanks to the grant and training received in the framework of the European project InnovAgroWoMed, promoted by Jovesólides in Spain.
Isabel Tomás Castelló (València, Spain) is an Agricultural Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Valencia and a Technician in Agroecological Production. She has worked managing farms of olive and almond trees in organic farming, citrus and persimmons in Valencia. She also has experience in administrative management in the public sector, in the field of agricultural subsidies; in management and control of protected varieties of citrus; and has worked in Madrid in plant health.
Agrotransición is the business he has undertaken after his time in the InnovAgroWoMed project, a management and consultancy company for farms in alternative production models to conventional agriculture.
Q- How and when did your innovative business idea come up?
R- I like nature and education, over the years I have worked in these two sectors, although always separately. So I thought why not integrate them?
I was a private tutor for many years while studying agronomy. Curiously, I met quite a few people with various disorders, especially children and adolescents. And I was surprised by their human quality, despite the setbacks. Later I started my professional career in the agricultural sector, I had the opportunity to work in organic production, but mainly in conventional production. From that experience I came to my own conclusions.
I think that conventional agriculture is a model whose days are numbered. And I think that the closeness between people and the care for the land has been lost. Over the years you realize that what people really need is someone to accompany them, more than to pass an exam or to profit from a crop. And that is why I decided to undertake this project.
Agrotransición wants to be something more than an agricultural advisory and management company, the consulting part is the beginning. It also aims to create an integrative community in a natural environment near Valencia. To be a space for social integration where different activities can be carried out, while at the same time giving an example of other alternative production models. To serve as a meeting point between those who feed us and those who are fed. Because it is necessary to bring realities closer to promote changes in mentality.
Q- What value does your company 'Agrotransition' bring to society?
R- I have spent many years studying new models of agricultural production that are more respectful of the environment, of society. I want to help, from a perspective that is considerate, transparent and careful with people and nature.
I believe it is necessary to consider new ways of farming, of working, of treating the land we live on and the people with whom we share the world. We simply need 'other ways', with human values.
That is why I created Agrotransition. The name responds to the idea of transformation that the countryside, the agricultural sector, life and society need.
Q- What finally pushed you to become an entrepreneur and why hadn't you done it before?
What gave me the definitive impulse to become an entrepreneur was the InnovAgroWoMed and Jovesólides program, especially the women I met during the course and the final scholarship I was awarded. I had not done it before because of fears, insecurities and because I could not afford it financially. Having studied the course has also helped me a lot to launch myself because I have learned some guidelines to get started.
Vídeo Isabel Tomás. Proyecto de asesoría y consultoría en agrotransición (InnovAgroWoMed).
Q- How has the training period and the scholarship helped you to develop your entrepreneurial idea and overcome the initial problems?
R- The training period has been of great help to refresh knowledge already acquired in the past and other new ones, especially practical and updated. I think we have come out of the course very well prepared.
The celebration of the Agroforo Resilient was like a shot of positive energy and self-esteem. I met people who were interested in my project and the truth is that it was very satisfying.
I also have to give a special thanks to the jury of the scholarship that valued my candidacy and gave me the opportunity to realize a dream I had, although it is going little by little, but without that money I would not have started.
Q- Have you encountered any specific difficulties in your process because you are a woman?
R- Not during the training process, but now that I am in reality, looking for the client and her trust, I have felt that on one occasion I have not been taken seriously. Not only because I am a woman, but I think it has been a mixture of being a woman, being young and having studies.
Q- Tell us about what you have achieved so far and your expectations for the future.
R- I was contacted by an association of municipalities with which I have collaborated in a line of action for entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector in a rural area. Thanks to this, I have had several contacts to whom I have already advised and at this moment I am in contact with one of them to take him the digital field notebook and help him to prepare agricultural subsidies. There is another person interested in having me help her with her CAP application and the field notebook, a woman entrepreneur with fields.
On the other hand, at the Agroforo Resilient I made two contacts. A company that owns a differentiated quality mark for agri-food products and is a member of GlobalGap, proposed me to collaborate with them as a technical specialist in preparing farms for audits. At the moment we have not started anything, but it is another opportunity that I am considering.
Q- What has the InnovAgroWoMed project meant to you?
R- It has been like a breath of fresh air. I entered the program looking for an opportunity for change at the labor level, mainly, and also with the objective of renewing myself in the sector.
Not only has it helped me to achieve this, but it has also been a personal, professional and economic reinforcement for me. I have met wonderful people, with values, who have taught me that there are people who are still willing to help and accompany and who want to work and live in a different way.
Q- After your experience, what would you recommend to other women entrepreneurs?
R- I would tell them not to get down, to live it with great enthusiasm and optimism, to value every word they hear and every person who comes to teach them, not to be afraid to ask questions, not to get bored of learning, to let themselves go in the course of the experience despite the uncertainty and not to give up and enjoy it.
And take lots of notes! Then always refer back to them 😀
Within the framework of the European project #InnovAgroWoMed, Jovesólides has worked for three years with partner organizations in Italy, Tunisia and Palestine in the development of a needs assessment, design and implementation of a training program in the four participating countries. Subsequently, different accompaniment, training, coaching and economic scholarships services have been developed to promote entrepreneurship and facilitate the labor insertion of women in the agri-food sector.
Thanks to this experience, 35 women at risk of social exclusion have been trained in Spain and to date, at least 54% of them are already working.
