Author Archives: jsfreem3

Course on agribusiness management for producers’ associations

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The module has the following objectives:

  • To learn about market research* as a first step in business planning.
  • To understand different types of planning and how they are applied to producers’ associations.

The conceptual content of this module has been organized into two units:

Unit 1 – Market knowledge as a basis for planning where the importance of researching target markets prior to production decisions is explained.

Unit 2 – Planning: a key factor for competitiveness contains information, ideas and guidelines for using planning as an essential tool for market requirements.

In terms of methodology, the units have been organized in order to give you the opportunity to discover each unit’s specific course content. Each unit has been structured to help you to identify in advance what you already know and to enable you to combine your existing knowledge with the proposed course content to optimum effect. The aim is together to build your capacities by accumulating new knowledge in a pro-active and participative way.

In terms of assessment, we start from the principle that assessment is of most value when it is used to take decisions for improving the teaching/learning process. This involves three phases:

  • Initial assessment: this will enable facilitators or tutors to analyse and predict your real capacity for learning. At the same time, it will give you an idea of what each unit is about and what it aims to achieve in terms of increasing your selfmotivation, updating your existing knowledge and preconceptions, and planning your own learning process fully.
  • Formative assessment: this will enable facilitators to take decisions to improve the teaching/learning process (regulation) and will enable you to take decisions to improve your own learning process (self-regulation).
  • Summative assessment: this will enable you to link together the key ideas, to find out what progress you have achieved and to see where you stand as regards a new learning process.

Authors:  Pilar Santacoloma, Alexandra Röttger, and Florence Tartanac

Publisher: FAO

Year: 2009

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Developing a Strategic Marketing Plan for Horticultural Firms

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A marketing plan is essential for every horticultural business and for efficient and effective marketing of any horticultural product or service. A marketing plan serves as a road map. It establishes objectives, recommended actions, and timing for achieving the objectives. An understanding of the marketing planning process is also a valuable aid in helping managers organize their thinking about the marketing process and the various methods and procedures used. A strategic marketing plan takes into account the market environment facing the business (e.g. trends, competitive environment, regulatory issues, technological advancements, etc.) Thus, the emphasis is not only on projections but also on an in-depth understanding of the market environment, particularly competitors and customers. Its goals are to take maximum advantage of opportunities, solve problems and counter threats to the business.

Before discussing the details of a marketing plan, it is important to identify the three different levels of planning activities that a firm may conduct to determine marketing strategies.

  • The company strategic plan defines the organization’s mission, sets long-range goals and formulates broad strategies to achieve these goals.
  • The strategic marketing plan is the long-term plan for the marketing area and deals with the overall marketing objectives of the organization.
  • The operating marketing plan focuses on the tactical decisions needed to carry out the strategic marketing plan. It is a detailed plan indicating the results of a situation analysis and offering a set of objectives and tactical statements to accomplish these objectives by the end of the year. Fundamentally, a tactical plan provides the answers to the questions – WHO, DOES WHAT, and WHEN (timelines).

Authors:  Gerald B. White, Wen-fei L. Uva

Publisher: Cornell University

Year: 2000

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Does E-Commerce Help Agricultural Markets? The Case of MarketMaker

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E-commerce refers to the use of the Internet to market, buy and sell goods and services, exchange information, and create and maintain web-based relationships between participant entities (Fruhling and Digman, 2000). Based on its demonstrated impact in industrial retail markets (Elia, Lefebvre, and Lefebvre 2007), e-commerce is believed to have the potential to increase profitability in agricultural markets by increasing sales and decreasing search and transactions costs. The creation of electronic markets that are expected to be more transparent and competitive than physical markets may attract more consumers by increasing demand and improving the firm’s strategic position with customers seeking specific niche products or having geographical restrictions (Batte and Ernst, 2007; and Montealegre, Thompson and Eales, 2007). However, due to the relatively new state of e-commerce in agriculture, its impact has not been widely measured and documented. We developed an evaluation framework and applied it to measuring the performance of the agricultural e-commerce platform MarketMaker. The analysis focuses on the impact of MarketMaker on producers and farmers’ markets and consists of both the perceived impacts based on survey responses and a willingness–to-pay analysis, as well as the examination of factors that affect the impacts of the website. Our findings provide guidance for future development of agricultural e-commerce-enabling platforms like MarketMaker, as well as future evaluation efforts of these platforms.

Authors:  Carlos E. Carpio, Olga Isengildina-Massa, R. David Lamie, and Samuel D. Zapata

Publisher: Choices

Year: 2013

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Budgeting Farm Machinery Costs

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Farm machinery costs make up a significant part of the fixed and variable costs of any farm operation. If the capital invested in a machine is to be used efficiently, that machine must be used over enough acres or for enough hours to have costs comparable to or below the same operation being done by a custom operator. This Factsheet provides a framework for calculating the total annual cost of farm machinery so that you can determine whether or not it makes economic sense for you to own a machine. The best source of information to budget farm machinery costs is your records. In the absence of farm records, calculation methods can be used to estimate the costs. The estimates discussed in this Factsheet use an economic engineering approach. The information presented is prepared as a representative guide to estimating machinery costs and is not intended to recognize or predict the costs for any one particular operation.

Authors:  J. R. Molenhuis

Publisher: Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs

Year: 2001

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A Guide for Assessing Agricultural Ventures

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Launching a new and viable agribusiness venture requires considerable research and meticulous planning to improve the odds of success. This publication and guide targets three potential consumers – investors into an agricultural venture, aspiring or beginning farmers who want to start an agricultural venture, and existing agricultural entrepreneurs looking for agricultural investment opportunities to expand into. Although not exhaustive, the information, ideas and analytical approach presented in this publication can help an aspiring or seasoned producer make the right decision for a given situation. Aspiring agricultural investors must heed that many investment opportunities are offered by both legitimate and by not so legitimate sales representatives. A legitimate investment can offer excellent returns, while a deal with a con artist is guaranteed to fail or result in serious financial loss. It is hoped that individuals seeking or pursuing new agricultural investment opportunities or transitioning to new agricultural ventures will carefully consider their options and look to other sources of valuable information for guidance.

The Guide for Assessing Agricultural Ventures is designed for entrepreneurs, value-added agricultural producers, and small business owners who are interested in starting a small agricultural business or desire to make changes to their business to make it more profitable. This publication will help the reader work through the challenges and opportunities associated with new business development.

Authors: Karen W. Craig, Kevin H. Crenshaw, JaMarkus Crowell, Kathryn B. Friday, Marcus L. Garner, William H. Hardin, Alice Paris, Mike Reeves, Nii Tackie, and Duncan M. Chembezi

Publisher: Alabama Cooperative Extension System

Year: 2013

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