Challenges And Strategies For Scaling Up Tea Farming In Multiple Villages

Challenges of Scaling Up Tea Farming

1.Agricultural sector involve many activities that have been applied by developing and developed countries to generate revenue. A lot of gross domestic products in these countries depend highly on agricultural practices. Farming of cash crops such as tea and coffee rank on top of most reliable farm produce (Saloner, 2009). I that connection, a lot of people will be willing to engage in this particular farming activities so as to generate maximum profits. From the report, the initial village to carry out growing of tea was Mawlyngot. This village involved few individuals who managed to grow tea in small scale. The process of collecting harvested tea from such low production would not be challenging since the process is smooth and efficient (Thomas, 2009). However, the return generated from small scale tea production is equally low. There was a need to initiate a program to venture tea farming to other villages. This action made the number of villages to increase as well as increase in the number of farmers who practiced tea farming.

To any business activity to undergo growth and development, there is a need to plan on how to facilitate the whole process. This will require innovations in various fields such as product innovation, market innovation and process innovation (Roll, 2015). It is also important to consider different types of resources such as capital investment, infrastructure, instrument and machinery along with skilled human resources. All these factors will play a significant role in initiating the process of growth and development. The process of growing tea involves several steps so as to process the final product. In that case, the process is likely to become costly and less feasible if the number of villages involved in tea growing increase without increasing the resources to cater for such changes (Puttee, Vitale & Laing, 2011). As the number of farmers growing tea increase, it is also important to reconsider infrastructure so as to avoid challenges of shifting from small scale production to large scale production. 

Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative can implement several options so as to incorporate changes brought by increase in the number of villages practicing tea growing activities as well as increase in farmers growing tea. These options are to be utilised so as to prevent straining of resources in tea collection process. This will make the process feasible and in return increase revenue collection.

Construction of collection centre in each village.

Options for Collection and Procurement

There is a need to bring services close to the community so as to enhance smooth and effective tea collection. In management sector, the process is referred as devolution (Prasch, 2008). Typically, devolution refers to a process of diversifying resources from the main terminal to other smaller organs so as to meet the requirements of the community mote easily and effectively. This implies that each village will have a special tea collection unit that will later be distributed to the main collection centre. Setting a collection centre in each village will result to a number of benefits to the farmers and Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. These benefits will reduce operation costs in tea collection and promote collective responsibility in the entire process (Peng, 2013). The benefit of setting tea collection centre in each village can be highlighted as follows:

1. The process of tea collection in each village will be smooth and effective as compared to a single tea collection centre for the seven villages.
2. The collection centre in each village will reduces cases of delay in tea collection. Tea is a far produce that require close management especially on time of collection. Exposing harvested tea to too much time without proper management will result to damage of tea (McGregor, 2012). The weight of fresh tea is different from tea that have been harvested few days ago. Payment of harvested tea is payable on weight. Thus, it is very important to collect tea immediately the process of harvesting is done. Failure to do that may result to huge losses to both the farmers and Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. If collection is done in the most appropriate time, then the process will be less costly and more feasible.
3. Setting up a collection centre in each village will enhance a sense of ownership by farmers in each village, in that case, employment opportunities will be created across all the seven villages. This will as well encourage other people involved in other activities to join tea farming. In that case, more tea production will be promoted. In the long run Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative will opt to enlarge tea collection centre in these villages.
4. Setting a tea collection centre in each village will enhance reliable and effective form of payment on harvested tea (Mackey, 2007). In that case, the farmers will be in a position to meet their daily expenditure such as payment of tea harvesters and purchase of farm inputs such as fertilizers and tea colleting bags.

Selling of tea produce at the MTG production centre or hire an agent to do the procurement.

This is another option that can be employed so as to mitigate challenges brought by increase in the number of villages carrying tea growing as well as increase in the number of farmers. This process will save resources associated to construction of collection centre in each village since the farmers will be selling the harvested tea to MTG production centre directly. It can also involve procurement of harvested tea by a sales agent. This process will be efficient since the costs of construction of tea collection centre in each village will be surpassed. However, the farmers will benefit in the short run since this option will be costly to the farmers. Hiring a sales agent to procure the harvested tea can be associated to some disadvantages (Lesserre, 2012). These disadvantages can result to unforeseeable losses. There could be delay in collecting harvested tea from the farmers by using this option. In that can millions of kilograms will be exposed to damage. Again, hiring a sales agent is a form of incorporating an intermediary. As a business analyst, the chain of distribution is very important (Hughes, 2008). It will be more costly to the farmers so hire a sales agent to procure the harvested tea in order to initiate collection process. 

My view from a business point of view is to incorporate the first option of setting a collection centre in each village rather than selling of tea produce at the MTG production centre or hire an agent to do the procurement. This option will benefit both the farmers and Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative in the long run. It is important to initiate a long term strategy in tea collection so as to promote a win-win situation between the tea farmers and Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative.

Financial Constraints and Strategies

2.Financial constraints

Financial constraint is a factor that can limit the process of growth and development if not addressed with a lot of care and analysis of financial resources. Capital investment and working capital are the main cornerstones to be used to mitigate financial constraint. Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative need to initiate a plan on how to generate both capital investments and working capital. All other operating costs need to be structured so as to determine whether tea farming in the seven villages is feasible on not. This will be determined by comparing the liabilities incurred to assets hold by both farmers and Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. Capital investments, working capital, capital expenses, inventory and cash receivables are items of financial statement (Fletcher, 2012). In that case, it is very important to ensure that the asset column is greater that liability column so as to avoid insolvency.

There are several options that be used to scale up capital investments and working capital for seven villages undertaking tea farming. These options aim at ensuring that capital expenses are catered for as production increase (Hitt, 2014). The options will also enhance marketing expenses incurred as production increase. First, Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative can contribute the initial capital investment to facilitate production capacity across the seven villages. This will be a significant breakthrough to tea growing. Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative will act as financier in that case. The farmers across the seven villages will manage to expand on tea growing as a way of appreciating the services offered by Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. The cooperative will be able to recover the capital invested from the returns generated by the farmers (Daft, 2015). This will increase the asset column of Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. Once the capital investment is recovered, the farmers will be in a position to gain more payments on tea harvested. Probably there will be a pay rise per kilo of tea harvested across all the villages. 

Another item that need to be considered is capital expense. In any production process, expenses are likely to increase as production capacity increase. Thus, Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative need to figure out how to cater for these expenses. In that case, the best option is to involve the government. Interference of the government in business operation especially agricultural sector can be of great significance (Christopher, 2011). The government can provide a lot of resources and policies to facilitate tea growing across all the seven villages. First, the government can provide incentives to these villages in terms of farming inputs. If the government provide these inputs in standardized costs, then a lot of resources will be saved and can be channeled to other production units (Laing, 2013). The government can also offer skilled farming experts so as to propel tea production in the villages.

Quality Control and Brand Equity

Lastly, for marketing expenses, inventory and cash receivable, there are other options that can be incorporated. There a number of marketing platforms can be used to increase sales volume of tea collected as well as tea processed by Mawlyngot’s Tea Growers’ Cooperative. The cooperative can enter into a contract with marketing platforms so as to facilitate marketing strategies. Payments on these marketing platform can be guided by terms and conditions based on quantity of tea sold in a given period of time. This option will cut down on unnecessary marketing expenses. For the case of inventory and cash receivable, the cooperative need to maintain high volume of both cash receivable and inventory (Chopra, 2012). These two items are in the asset column. In that case, inventory will be able to meet any anticipated demand in the market. Once cash receivable are recovered, the farmers will benefits from bonuses and other subsequent mini-bonuses.

3.Quality Assurance with organic characteristics