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Dairy Co-operatives

Information Management
and Traceability Solutions
Company

Creating an Innovative E-Agribusiness


mwangiky@gmail.com
Background
 Vision- To be a leader in data handling,
processing and displaying of real time
information and offering traceback system of
milk and milk products to co-operatives and
markets both domestic and international.
 Mission - Is to provide efficient and effective
data processing and traceback system to co-
operatives that will lead to improved
competitive advantage at national and
international level.
 Owned by dairy co-operatives in North Rift
Region
Business Overview cont..
 Milk is highly perishable product and therefore
storage, handling and processing needs to be efficient
and effective without compromising on quantity and
quality while being able to track the movement from
the source to the end consumer
 involve issues like what information needs capturing,
what technology will capture that information, how
that information is going to be transferred, where it
will be transferred, where it will be stored, the analysis
of that information, how it will be retrieved by co-
operatives and how that information will reach
farmers and intended persons/businesses for further
action
BUSINESS OVERVIEW CONT..
Critical Review of the key “E” Agribusiness issues

 increasing economic pressure has led to the need for


more and better information
 small difference at production level could lead to a
substantial drop in profits for a firm
 management skills are central in any kind of
business and they are best supported by information
technology
 internet has developed to provide a rich mechanism
for electronic communication and electronic
commerce
Critical Review of the key “E”
Agribusiness issues cont...
 business environment has become more complicated
and therefore enterprises must innovate for them to
stay afloat in the market place be it domestic or
international
 knowledge is viewed as a significant factor in
agriculture production
 Knowledge management is aided by information
technology where it offers a means of accelerating
agriculture development
 The ‘firm’s core competencies resides in the accumulated
intellectual capital of the firm and is the sum of its
technologies, experience, skills, and management process’
(Spekman et al. 2002).
 ‘firm’s ability to learn from its partners is affected by its
ability to harness the information, and transform/transfer
it internally among organisational members as knowledge’
 difficult for firms that do not use IT to partner with
competent firms in a supply chain in order to reduce costs,
improve processes, have better quality of products and
services, traceback products and enhance innovation
through joint development opportunities.
 As the international trade in food and food products is
increasingly becoming more intense, food safety
standards with regard to regulations relating to
traceability, product certification, environment
concerns, etc have increased in scope and importance
 traceability is seen as ‘indispensible instrument in
obtaining the consensus’ from consumers
 traceability is about information collection of a
particular product from the time it is created to the
time it reaches the consumer
 This business will involve
two main areas namely;
 a) Information management
and data processing and
 b) Traceback system
 key players that will be
involved directly to facilitate
the core function of the
company will include; the
co-operative, farmers,
processors, mobile network
service provider and
transporters.
 The company will utilise CoopWorks which is a
web-based open-source software that will be run
on a database server
 Through the software a journal of transactions,
statements, members’ deliveries, credit/loans,
production of invoices etc will be produced for
each co-operative
 At the co-op level in a Local Area Network (LAN)
with several computers depending on the number
of members, each workstation with a computer
will be able to access data from the co-operative
server and the database server using the
distribution router of co-op and the core router at
the company
 The co-operatives in the North Rift Region will
own the company through shares contributions
from the memberships of individual co-
operatives. The region has more than 50 active
dairy co-operatives with a membership of 15,
000 or more.
 TOTAL INCOME expected 37, 244,000.00
 TOTAL EXPENSES expected 27,780,000.00
 ESTIMATED SURPLUS expected 9,464,000.00
Marketing strategy

Cyber-defence strategy

Risk Management –operational risk (security)

Sustainability plan
References
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Boehlje, M 1999, 'Structural Changes in the Agricultural Industries: How do we Measure, Analyze and Understand them?',
American Journal of Argricultural Economics, vol. 81, no. 5, pp. 1028-41.
Boehlje, M, Akridge, J & Dave, D 1995, 'Restructuring Agribusiness for the 21st Century', Agribusiness, vol. 11, no. 6, p. 493.
Bryceson, KP 2006, 'E' Issues in Agribusines: The 'What', 'Why', 'How', CAB International, Wallingford, Nosworthy Way, Oxfordshire,
UK.
CoopWorks 2006-2010, The CoopWorks Project, viewed 3rd September 2010, <http://www.coopworks.org/>.
Dunne, AJ 1999, Marketing Agricultural Products; Australia Perspective, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
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Trade Barrier to Developing Countries’ Exports?', paper presented to International Association of Agricultural Economists
Conference, , Gold Coast, Australia.
Gross, AC January-February 1988, 'The information vending machine', Business Horizons, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 24-33.
International Co-operative Alliance 2009, What is a co-operative?, viewed May 16th 2010,
<http://www.ica.coop/coop/index.html>.
Republic of Kenya 2004, Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture 2004-2014, by Ministry of Agriculture and Ministry of Livestock and
Fisheries Development.
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Technological Forecasting and Social Change, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 491-518.
Regattieri, A, Gamberi, M & Manzini, R 2007, 'Traceability of food products: General framework and experimental evidence',
Journal of Food Engineering, vol. 81, no. 2, pp. 347-56.
Spekman, RE, Kamauff Jr, JW & Myhr, N 1998, 'An empirical investigation into supply chain management: a perspective on
partnerships', Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 53-67.
Spekman, RE, Spear, J & Kamauff, J 2002, 'Supply chain competency: learning as a key component', Supply Chain Management: An
International Journal, vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 41-5.
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vol. 35, no. 1-2, pp. 150-60.
United Nations 2008, Background Paper on Co-operatives, viewed April 20th 2010,
<http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/social/cooperatives/>.
van Asseldonk, Huirne, RBM, Dijkhuizen, AA, Beulens, AJM & Udink ten Cate, AJ 1999, 'Information needs and information
technology on dairy farms', Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, vol. 22, pp. 97-107.

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