a)Commercial Village Work plan /Action Plan 

An action plan is a way to make sure group/organization’s vision is made concrete. It describes the way a group will use its strategies to meet its objectives.

Critical questions to action planning

• What actions or changes will occur
• Who will carry out these changes
• By when they will take place, and for how long
• What resources (i.e., money, personnel) are needed to carry out these changes
• Communication (who should know what

The Commercial zones should always fix their eyes to the business plan; a business plan is a road map for an entrepreneur’s business. The work plan is developed from the business plan for specific period; this will help what a farmer need to be doing at   certain time and place but also indicating the required resources. A good work plan should show information such as:

• What is going to be planted; how much seeds/planting materials, fertilizer other cost will be needed per the size of the plot
• Human Labor and machines requirement
• Analysis of stages from planting, to selling and what needs to be done at each of the analyzed stages
• The amount of money required and the sources for the required funds
• How will the produce reach the market

b)Criteria for the good action plan

1. Completeness - Does it list all the action steps or changes to be sought in all relevant parts of the group
2. Clear - Is it apparent who will do what by when?
3. Current - Does the action plan reflect the current work? Does it anticipate newly emerging opportunities and barriers?

c)How to develop a group action plan ;Steps

• Determine what people to be involved in the action plan development

• Convene a planning meeting with your group to design your action plan
• Develop an action plan composed of action steps that address all proposed changes
• Review your completed action plan carefully to check for completeness
• Follow through
• Keep everyone informed about what is going on.
• Keep track of what (and how well) you've done

d)Action Plan Template

e)Production schedule/ Planning

This refers to timetable for efficiency use of resources in production and profit making from agricultural activities. This includes timely seed sowing and planting, seed rates and planting materials, harvesting periods and product delivery.

Production schedule/planning varies from crop to crop as crops differ in growth period and depends on resources available. Such as Rainfall and Water availability, planting materials like seeds, Fertilizers, Equipment, farm machinery and available opportunities like Markets.

a)Record Keeping

To ensure that you manage your finances within your business, it is important to keep proper records. Record keeping is a systematic process by which information is created, captured and maintained for the future use of an organization or individuals. Good record keeping is necessary for efficient farm management. Not all the other factors of production can be well managed without records

Why is Proper record keeping important?

1. Proper records allow you to track the performance of your farm.
2. Proper records will be a key requirement for you to convince the lenders such as Banks and Microfinance Institutions to lend you money
3. When you have proper records, it allows you to plan properly. For instance, when you fill out the financial requirement record demonstrated below, it shows you at the end how much money you need, and therefore how much loan you need to apply.

b)Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA)

Cost benefit analysis estimates and totals up the equivalent money value of the benefits and costs to the community of projects to establish whether they are worthwhile.  A cost benefit analysis is done to determine how well, or how poorly, a planned action will turn out.CBA finds, quantifies, and adds all the positive factors i.e. the benefits then it identifies, quantifies, and subtracts all the negatives i.e. the costs. The difference between the two indicates whether the planned action is advisable

Conclusion