Rural Enterprise: Key Concepts and Development
Key Concepts of Rural Enterprise and Development
1. Defining Characteristics:
- a. Human capacity to initiate change, identifying opportunities.
- b. Transforming reality through new ideas and projecting a future vision.
- c. A medium for exchange where people buy, sell, or exchange to meet needs and provide products/services.
- d. Must be competitive and purchasable, covering costs and expenses incurred in production.
- e. The person or organization concerned with the product or service’s environmental impact.
- f. A set of actors and activities surrounding a product in a given space.
2. Rural Enterprise:
Rural enterprise is located where wealth is sustainable. It involves utilizing intellectual, human, material, and financial resources to produce or distribute products or services. This aligns with the organization’s objectives, integrating available resources in rural areas. Rural enterprises aim to create new scenarios, requiring investment in human resources and generating better development options for the community’s benefit.
3. Changes in Rural Economic Activities:
- Development of new economic activities in rural areas.
- Disappearance of some economic activities in rural areas.
- Quality connections with other rural communities and business centers.
4. Examples of Activities and Infrastructure:
- a. Tourism, trade, agribusiness, trade, waterworks.
- b. Telephony, aqueduct, conservation, roads, tourism.
5. Key Sectors:
Livestock, Agriculture, Tourism.
6. Communication Channels:
Radio, Television, Print.
7. Risk and Threat Management:
Risk is the potential danger from a more or less predictable event that entrepreneurs cannot control, potentially causing damage or loss. Threats to the enterprise depend on the severity of the consequences, ranging from costly events to mild ones. A contingency plan can be established to address these.
8. Essential Financial Statements:
- Balance Sheet: Shows the venture’s investments and the origin of the resources that made the investments possible.
- Income Statement: Shows operations, risks, costs, and expenses required to achieve revenue.
- Cash Flow: Shows the monthly balances resulting from the difference between cash income and expenditure for each month.
9. Value Chain Analysis:
The value chain consists of all costs and expenses that enable the marketing of a product or service meeting customer needs. It encompasses how value is added to the product or service, including:
- Raw materials
- Labor
- Production costs of inputs used
- Advertising
- Cost of rebates, sweepstakes, public relations
- Discretionary spending
10. Market Relations and Analysis:
- 1. Relations with the International Economy: Provides evidence for evaluating the risks and opportunities presented by global markets.
- 2. Relations with the National Economy: Allows an assessment of the available socio-economic and socio-political context.
- 3. Structure of the Agri-Food System: Compares the current capacity and potential of different groups.
- 4. Functioning of the Agri-Food System: Includes identifying and characterizing the technical and economic relations between different actors.
- 5. Interpretation of Results: The above items are articulated to show the determinants of strengths and potential weaknesses.
11. Phases and Stages of Development:
- a. Phases: Research, Dialogue, Execution.
- b. Stages: Assessment of improved content analysis, national dialogue, technical evaluation of proposals, “new proposals,” action program, commitments.
12. Socio-Political and Economic Context:
Development occurs within the socio-political, economic, and technical context of the country and its institutions. The global market presents opportunities that the country can leverage to protect its interests in both domestic and international markets.
13. Key Elements of the Agri-Food System:
- Structure and functioning
- Actors and activities
- Production, consumption, trade, industry
- Supply of inputs and services