Business plan for agricultural center in Kenya

About the organisation
The Limuru Farm is part of the Limuru Agricultural Youth Centre located in Limuru, Kenya. The farm is engaged in low scale commercial and subsistence farming of tea, legumes and grass for cattle. Also there is small dairy farming, - piggery and aquaculture. The current activities are crop producton and livestock production. The products are sold to local customers and food processors. The farm is not profitable yet, which makes that the policy and strategy must be changed. 

Business case

The business case request was about making a business plan for 2011 and 2012 for the agricultural farm and a road map to make this business plan operational. Theo Sinke  has an extensive experience in financial management by working at Rabobank and agricultural roots. He was a great match to fullfill the business case of Limuru.

Results

Analysis
A project team of six delegates has been formed  (the principal, the farm manager, the deputy principal, the accountant, the IT instructor and Theo Sinke) Theo was coaching the team to co-create a business plan and all project members as well as with the deputy National General Secretary of the YMCA were committed.

Major conclusions
Major conclusion is that the farm has to shift from charity farming to business farming.
 

Advice
Recommendations were done in the field of production, team building, marketing and distribution. To shift from charity farming to business farming Limuru should focus on customer care, financial management and trainings (like marketing training) for the management and personnel. The farm can be profitable and sustainable by implementing the recommendations of the business plan.

Deliverables 

A visible, proper and suitable business plan.

Impact on the partners
Theo Sinke:  "This has been one of my best projects ever with excellent preparation" "I have gained experience in building up a good team to create the business plan."

Follow up
The board of YMCA has agreed upon the essentials to turn the farm in to a sustainable and profitable agricultural business. The expert will be monitoring the farm of YMCA by regular communication by skype or email. Limuru Farm is responsible to realize the aims of the roadmap but the expert will keep in touch. After this Programme, an official update on the status of the organisation takes place every 12 months. With this information, a new Programme will start to boost the organisation if needed.