For futher informationt contact: Carlos Felipe Ostertag or
François Boucher

[Documents with Themes on Business Organization]

A New Context for Rural Agroenterpreneurs

Food and agriculture systems are changing rapidly. In developed countries, retailers, supermarkets, and private enterprise are generally promoting changes as they search for comparative advantages.

Increasingly, greater vertical integration among supermarkets, retailers, food companies, and farmers is observed. Such integration is based on the need to guarantee product quality, continuous supply, and more competitive prices. These processes are also occurring in developing countries, in the food chains for both export and large urban markets.

Promoting Ties for Successful Organizations

Many rural agroenterprises are limited to traditional markets and trade products of regular quality at poorly competitive prices.  Meanwhile, specialized markets for better quality products and with higher aggregate value exist.  Identifying and exploiting these markets, both national and export, requires reorienting existing agroenterprises and providing the opportunity to create new companies.

To achieve positive results, ideal forms of organization and mechanisms must be developed to strengthen management and business capacity. New and stronger links must be established within the food and agriculture chain, giving greater emphasis to the quality of products and raw materials and forming closer and more solid commercial relationships among farmers, processors, distributors, and retailers.

Lines of Action in Business Organization

The reorientation of small traditional companies and the establishment of new companies to face these challenges and opportunities require a system of integrated support. Rural enterprises need access to credit, technical assistance, support in improving commercial and business skills, and more and better information on market behavior.

Despite some of these services being offered through the state, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and commercial intermediaries, these are often either not effective or only partially so.

These arguments oriented the RAD Project to develop mechanisms that offer these services effectively, sustainably, and with less dependency on external support. Thus, the Project focuses its research on this area at three levels:

• The company’s structure and internal organization.

• Organization of links already made and to be made in the future, and between companies in the food and agriculture system.

• Organization and delivery of support services to rural agroenterprises. 

Documents with Themes on Business Organization

For a theoretical background in business organization, download the following PDF Documents: if English versions are available, check English titles.

• Basics of Business Plans (506 kb)
  [Fundamentos del Plan de Negocio] (300 kb)
  Includes and describes business strategy, identification of market opportunities, the plan’s objectives, the management team and organizational chart, market description, financing the business, and activity timetable.

• Strategic Planning: Regions, Communities and Rural Enterprises (74 kb)
  [Planeación Estratégica: Regiones, Comunidades y Empresas Rurales] (138 kb)
  Describes the importance of this process, how to formulate different types of strategy, stages and their identification, and how to plan a business portfolio that covers all identified needs.

• Business and Market Orientation (394 kb)
  [Orientación Empresarial y Orientación de Mercado]
  (276 kb)
  Explains the significance of having a business orientation, starting with the concept of administration and indicating the difference between business function and strategic process. It also explains the concept of market orientation and lists some useful tools for administrative planning.

• Financial Profitability Models for Agriculture and Agroindustry (169 kb)
  [Modelo de Rentabilidad Financiera para la Agriculura y la Agroindustria] (664 kb)
  Explains how to develop such models, and how and why an entrepreneur would develop one. Also broadly explains how to interpret and calculate the internal rate of return (IRR), and how to achieve the net present value (NPV).

• Promoting the Competitiveness of the Small Rural Producer [Promoviendo la Competitividad del Pequeño Productor Rural (PPR)] (901 kb)
  Explains the concept of competitiveness of the small rural producer and offers a broad perspective on world market trends and their directions.