Farm enterprise and its components

A farm enterprise is an enterprise like any other enterprise. It is run on management principles like any other enterprise except that it has very important distinguishing features. Thus, conversional management principles are modified to suit the farm enterprise environment. Successful farm enterprise management requires that farming be treated as a business rather than a way of life such as gathering. A farm enterprise is generally a biological enterprise. It relies on natural processes such as photosynthesis, respiration, assimilation it borrows heavily from plant and animal anatomy and physiology, soil science, climatology. A farm enterprise is generated from skills developed from the understanding of these natural processes and elements. It is an enterprise that produces biological products such as crops and crops products, livestock and their products, forest and their products, fish and their products, mushroom, and other products. The primary output on any farm is a biological product. In fact a farm is a production unit just like a factory except the output is a biological product. A farm should be viewed a complete functioning system with its own organs just like circulatory, excretory, respiratory and other systems of living things. Important organs of a farm enterprise are finance, procurement, production, processing, marketing, and revenue sections in one chain. Outside this chain is the maintenance administrative and management organs. 

The procurement, production, processing and marketing constitute a value chain. They are the business life line. They get inputs and convert them into output and market them to generate profit and other objects of the farm. The finance and revenue components are support organs because they do not participate in the flow of physical products and services. The procurement, production, processing and marketing are the core organs of any successful farm. They must work at same rate in a synchronised manner. If any of these organs is malfunctioning, the farm collapses. The procurement organ obtains inputs that are fed into the production organ. If the inputs are faulty, the rest of the chain will generate poor output for marketing, and customers will complain. Likewise, if the production organ fails to perform, the farm collapses. And if the marketing organ becomes inefficient, the whole process is slowed down or blocked. Thus, all these organs must be managed by one manager.

The finance revenue, maintenance and administration are support organs. They give the relative stability of the core farm functions and ensure that the core functions are run in uninterrupted manner. The maintenance keeps the system running through repair works. Since disruptions on production processes on farms are always treated as emergencies, this sub-system must always be located on the farm under the supervision of the farm manager. The administration looks after the welfare of the organs through compensation and other human resource matters. The finance and revenue are required to keep the order of money matters of the farm. Potential disruptions may come from the support organs as they struggle to be treated as core organs. The management comprises the farm manager and any other similar authority. All organs on the farm must be accountable to the farm manager for smooth coordination.

Keith Daka

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