Keeping farm records is an important part in farming. The records have to be accurate and up to date reflecting on all activities that occur on the farm. Farmers in Kenya should always have their farm records ready before they do any financial analysis, financial decisions or budgeting.
Its always important to have records as a farm manager because;
- Loan Applications: When you want to expand your farming business you will need to have good records to present to the bank. These records will be needed to determine if your business has been performing as required.
- Management Purposes: If you have good farm records this will enable you to plan and manage your farm effeciently. It will show you where you have been wrong and what you need to do to make it right. It will also act as a guideline in managing your farm bugdget.
The number of farmers in Kenya that do not keep records is shocking. Some of them complain that they are always busy and don’t have time, while others say that they know how to manage their farms without always writing things down. These are the reasons and attitudes that make us fail all the time we practice farming. You will even find others taking all their reciepts at the end of the month/year to an accountant friend to help them calculate production costs and profitability. The problem with this picture is that the accountant will not know what has really been going on at your farm thus causing a lot of irregularities with your financials.
Farmers should also keep records for their farm activities such as
- Breeding
- Feeding
- Harvesting
- Planting Records
All these guidelines are important to help you as a farmer make better future decisions in your agribusiness.
Tips: Use modern technology to make the best out of record keeping i.e If a cow dies from lighting shock, take a photograph of it using your phone and use this image to claim damages from your insurance company. A picture is worth a thousand words but it can also be worth a thousand shillings:).
DOWNLOADS
[wpdm_package id=’2220′]
Hallo,
I am getting ready to farm seriously as a business and i plan to start with some vegitables and fruits (strawberries and paw paw) and progress to rabbits, chicken, Goats for milk and dairy cows. Not necessarily in that order. I have read your article on record keeping and i appreciate you for posting that. I would really appreciate it if you could also put up or email me record keeping templates for vegetable farming and also animal farming.
Regards,
Kimani.
Hello Kimani. Thank you. We will be putting up templates soon
Hello.Good tips here to encourage farmers to manage their farm records.We are a young I.T company based in Nairobi and we have developed a very nice software which farmers can use to manage their farm records since we have realised the importance of this. Many farmers are actually using it and we are getting very positive feedback. We would love it if you would put the word out about our farm management system. Thank you. Contact is 0728130139 .
Hello Softworld Technologies. We are pleased to hear that your farm management software is helping farmers. Please send us an email at ideas@graduatefarmer.co.ke with a more detailed portfolio.
am almost 22 graduating next year n a born farmer.i beleive in the multi-billion agriculture industry as the future of kenya n ua site is really inspiring
BIG UP
ANY advice on mushrooms farming?
Hello Gateri, we are glad that we get to inspire you and many other readers. Your lucky its a coincidence our next article is on the mushroom business and we are currently working on it.
nice..#regards
I think this is among the most vital info for me. And i am glad reading your article.
But should remark on few general things, The web site style is perfect, the articles is really
great : D. Good job, cheers
Thank you
Hi! This post couldn’t be written any better! Reading this post reminds me of my previous room
mate! He always kept chatting about this. I will forward this article to him.
Pretty sure he will have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
You are welcome!
Hello to every one, the contents present at this site
are genuinely amazing for people experience, well, keep up the nice work fellows.
Your articles are truly inspiring , am so excited that am diverging to farming soon, already working on my business plan.
I blog often and I seriously appreciate your content.
Your article has truly peaked my interest. I’m going to bookmark your site and keep checking for new details about
once per week. I opted in for your Feed too.
Great ideas want to venture into onions any suggestions and experience please share
Hi farmer graduate? I want to start farming potatoes in molo on a 3hectares of land and maize on a 1hectare. How much should I invest as my starting capital
Hello.Thats good to hear.
1.Start by having your soil tested
2.Look at your source of water
3.Labour
4.Fertilizer
5.Buy Quality Seeds
5.Good Farm Management Training
hello team you promised to put vegetable records template but upto date this has not been done
Hey.check article again
hi am steve frm loitokitok.am thinking of setting up a dairy farm maybe i start with 3 or 4.i was asking which is the best type of cow for that area and where do i get them.TIA
hi am a student and i would like you people to help me out on this question. why do many farmers fail to keep farm records
Lack of knowledge
Good day I am so excited I found your webpage, I really found
you by error, while I was searching on Google for something else, Nonetheless
I am here now and would just like to say many thanks for a incredible post and a all
round entertaining blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t
have time to go through it all at the moment but I have bookmarked it and also included
your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep
up the excellent job.
As additional practitioners and doctors are obtaining licensed to practice acupuncture, and far
more states are regulating the practice, the field of acupuncture will continue to grow.
I am so much impressed with your article ,i will appreciate if you could email me with a template on vegetable farming and animal record keeping ..
Hello am Muhammad zakari , l found this site very helpful, am a student of fisheries technology at Bauchi State College of Agriculture,Nigeria. Have you any article on fish breeding? it will help a lot. Thanks hope I will be part of this site.
hello am Muhammad kabir zakari, a student of fisheries technology at the Bauchi state college of Agriculture, found this site helpful, how can I get so stuff on fisheries studies ? keep the good work