PARTCARE is an NGO that provides management and advisory services to agricultural investors in the agricultural industry, within Kenya and East Africa. The organization has three operating divisions:
Management
PARTCARE’s mandate is to manage farming/agricultural businesses on behalf of a wide range of Agricultural investors and our management portfolio is located throughout Kenya.
Under contract with farmers, we jointly develop and manage agricultural/farming assets, which include the farmland and the farming operations conducted on it. Our management service covers livestock, broad acre cropping and horticulture. PARTCARE’s expertise is in the management of small scale and commodity diverse agricultural enterprises.
PARTCARE assists stakeholders in the agriculture sector. Our life cycle approach to the farming community includes entry strategy, strategic agricultural portfolio development, best practice management of agricultural and farming operations and exit mechanisms to maximize returns.
Partcare Consulting
PARTCARE provides consultancy services to a wide range of farmers including primary producers, agricultural investors, and indigenous owned organizations. Consulting work includes due diligence, feasibility studies, business planning, commercial reviews, sector analysis and strategic planning.
Partcare Corporate Solutions
PARTCARE Corporate Solutions offers agricultural investors/Cooperatives a holistic service including concept advice, strategic planning, structuring, implementation planning, performance reviews and portfolio management. The Corporate Solutions division aims to combine the agricultural experience of PARTCARE with the finance and investment expertise of the Corporate Solutions team and PARTCARE’s work to date. This division is a value-add to PARTCARE’s Management and Consultancy divisions with the PARTCARE of providing ‘whole-of-life’ solutions to investors in agricultural sector.PARTCARE assists stakeholders in the agriculture sector. Our life cycle approach to the farming community includes entry strategy, strategic agricultural portfolio development, best practice management of agricultural and farming operations and exit mechanisms to maximize returns.
Infrastructure Management And Development
PARTCARE manages farmers’ fixed improvements in accordance with a routine repair and Maintenance schedule and a program for the replacement of major capital items. On some occasions a farm is not fully developed or an innovative approach to infrastructure design and development can lift the productive capacity of the property. PARTCARE’S team has the skills and experience to develop appropriate infrastructure and land development programs and project manage these programs, which are often large scale, to completion.
Economic And Market Outlook
PARTCARE’S team includes analysts and consultants with experience in market research and analysis, statistical analysis and economic modeling and assessing short, medium and long term outlooks for specific commodities. PARTCARE’S consulting and research team provide important tracking, market intelligence and input to a farm’s short, medium and long term crop planning and marketing and sales program. A marketing program is developed for each farming property/group and considers and recommends on markets, customers, forward contracts, supply agreements and futures trading.
AGRICULTURAL EXPERTISE Diversity of Skills and Experience
While many elements of farm operations are common across commodity sectors and Locations, there is also a considerable diversity of skills and experience required due to:
Through its staff, PARTCARE has the diverse knowledge and experience to manage a wide variety of primary producing enterprises across the country. Some of the common skills and experience we are called upon to deliver in our management service are described below.
Few of our most successful corporate training programs for our farmers include:
Cropping
PARTCARE’S Operations Team has the skills and experience to plan and implement all aspects of a crop production system, both for irrigated and dry-land cultivation, in the grains, and horticulture (fruits, vegetables and nuts) sectors. PARTCARE plans and implements all aspects of the cropping operation including:
In all cases, we train our farmers to optimize the crop production practices through the use of appropriate technologies and innovations such as zero/minimum tillage, use of high Yield/water efficient varieties, etc.
DRIVING RETURNS IN AGRICULTURE
The Kenya's agricultural sector has a reputation for being a best producer industry and is a major player in many of the world agricultural commodity markets. The competitive advantage of the industry has been achieved in (often) challenging and adverse climatic conditions. Perhaps as a result of these hurdles, Kenyan top performing producers are known for innovation and staying ahead of the game, in terms of continually striving for productivity growth and value enhancement in their agricultural assets. PARTCARE’S management experience and systems had its origins in Kenya’s agricultural reforms so we have had the benefit of the country’s experience. By combining this experience with our experience gained over time and the natural advantages and resources of other countries, PARTCARE is able to deliver on investor’s return objectives with respect to a range of agricultural investments across Africa. We consider Kenya as well positioned to continue to lead many productivity gains in agriculture and that this applies equally to other major agricultural producing countries.
PRODUCTIVITY
The elements of a farm business that we managed in a way to drive continuous improvements in productivity are:
SCALE
Farm surveys show that productivity growth in the agricultural industry is closely related to size, with the largest one third of farming businesses enjoying strong productivity growth, in contrast to the smaller two thirds who have had little or no improvement. Critical scale can be improved through expansion and/or consolidation of a portfolio of properties in a regional cluster or the development of a portfolio of farming properties in geographically diverse locations. The former model can enable more efficient utilisation of labour and farming plant and equipment, while the latter model can assist greatly in the management of climatic risk. At a threshold scale of operation, corporate agricultural businesses can afford to employ specialist expertise in a myriad of disciplines such as livestock husbandry, agronomy, land development, irrigation design and development, marketing and investment planning, to cite just a few examples. Access to this range of specialist skills can only be achieved cost effectively through scale and it is these specialist skills that contribute to above average industry performance. PARTCARE management model captures both the innovation that drives productivity growth and scale benefits that drive efficiencies and effectiveness of agricultural management. The following sections show how PARTCARE management system operates in practice.
MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
PARTCARE provides farmers with holistic solutions backed by unparalleled agricultural expertise, proven quality assured systems and procedures, an active management approach and rewards based fee structure. This unique service offering is tailored to each farmer to ensure that objectives and goals are achieved.
Elements of the PARTCARE Management System
| PARTCARE Management System | |||
| Agricultural expertise | Systems & procedures | Active management | Rewards |
MANAGEMENT MODEL
When a farmer engages PARTCARE to manage its agricultural investments, the farmer gains access to a dedicated team who will:
PARTCARE manages integrated asset portfolios and/or single businesses.
PARTCARE AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS & PROCESSES EXPERTISE
Profiles of PARTCARE’S core team are contained herein. We have developed systems and procedures over a period of 3 years that harness the diverse skills and experience that these people bring to our farmers’ businesses.
| PARTCARE Expertise , Systems and Processes | ||||
| Operational management | Finance & administration | Consultancy and Research Support | Strategy & Portfolio Management | Marketing & Supply chain Management |
MANAGEMENT TEAM
PARTCARE Resources group supports the CEO – each member contributes his/her particular skills to the overall management of the agricultural business. These skills may include strategy, policy, analysis, monitoring & evaluation, production, marketing, finance and administration. In instances where an agricultural business requires a particular technical expertise, e.g. the design and construction of a higher efficiency irrigation system, PARTCARE has a register of government accredited consultants and suppliers who are contracted for specific specialist tasks. PARTCARE’S expertise is in the management of large geographically and commodity diverse agricultural enterprises. Accordingly, PARTCARE’S staff and network of specialist associates are employed to focus upon differing elements of the farming operation. Our Group management model integrates the various specializations under the direction and supervision of the PARTCARE’S CEO, who in turn also manages and supervises the Managers, responsible for the implementation of day-to-day sector operations. Therefore, PARTCARE farmers have access to a wide range of specialist input to their farming business, regardless of the scale of their operation.
ACCOUNTABILITY
The best Strategic Plan is nothing without a culture of ‘execution’. PARTCARE has a system of Communication, review and accountability from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) through to field staff to ensure plans are followed, reviewed where necessary and ultimately investor returns are delivered. Accountability is embedded in our systems and processes.
TRACK RECORD AND CORPORATE EXPERIENCE
The PARTCARE team is unique and unsurpassed in its combination of experience, qualifications and track record.
Our experience with farmers organizations
| NAME | ACTIVITY |
| Sustainable Community Environment Programme | Organizational capacity assessment, project monitoring and end of project evaluation |
| Nakuru agricultural training centre | Five year strategic and business plans |
| Sustainable Practical Program for Africa | Domesticating National Food Security and Nutrition strategy in Nakuru County |
| Menengai Youth Cooperative society | Dairy farming, poultry farming, small scale horticultural farming, butcheries, bio-gas systems. |
| Rongai Rural Sacco | Agricultural activities for both subsistence and commercial purposes include beans, maize, tomatoes, poultry keeping, and beehives, and bio-gas systems. Rongai Constituency is known for large scale farming in wheat, maize, sunflower, cut flowers, and dairy milk. The nearest tomato processing plant is in Njoro. The plant also buys French beans from farmers. |
| MAKI SACCO | Commercialized agricultural activities in the Maki SACCO areas of reach include: fruits such as guavas, apples, pears; Vegetables including carrots, peas, cabbages, potatoes; dairy farming, French Beans, Cowpeas and Snow peas |
| Taita Taveta Teachers | Commercialized agricultural activities in the Taita SACCO areas of reach include: French beans, coffee; peas, carrots, cabbages, potatoes; sunflower; water melons; sweat melons; tomatoes. Potential commercial crops include the draught resistant Aloe Vera (Kipapa). |
| NAWACOM Investment Cooperative society | Manufacture of Mazingira organic fertilizer in Nakuru municipality through recycling of municipal waste. |
| NAHECO SACCO | Capacity building on Sacco management and policies |
| 22 cooperative societies in Uasin Gishu County | Carried out impact evaluation of 55 million loans given to the cooperatives through County Enterprise Development Fund. |