| dc.description.abstract | The study has been devoted to the assessment of the rural
estate Management practice in Kenya with special
reference to coffee estates/farms in Kiambu and Murang'a
Districts. This was done from the three perspectives of
a financier (the Agricultural Finance Corporation), a
financier cum Estate Manager(Standard Chartered Estate
Management Ltd) and a farm management entity (Coffee
farmers Co-operative Societies) with a view to
establishing which system is the most beneficial to
farmers.
Various aspects of rural estate management, that is farm
management were examined. These included production,
capital acquisition and management and personnel
management. In addition, maintenance management, which
is an important aspect of estate management, was also
discussed. Data was collected through the use of
questionnaires and personal interviews.
The respondents in the study were the estate managers and
clients of Standard Chartered "Estate Management Ltd.,
Loan Officers and clients of Agricultural Finance
Corporation and the Management Committee of the coffee
farmer cooperative Societies.
The main findings of the study supported the view that a
package deal comprising financing and estate management
is not beneficial to the client farmers. This is because
of excessive costs of the package deal which are paid for
by the farmers. The success of estate management is
measured not only by the extent to which it achieves its
aims but also by the economy of effort,money and
materials which these aims are secured. | en |
