Agroindustrial project analysi

AN OVERVIEW 15agroindustries from industries that are not subject to the pressuresand vicissitudes of agronomic forces. Second, processing differentiatesagroindustrial projects from agricultural projects that focusprimarily on production. Agriculture and industry must be seenas being integrated if an appropriate framework for agroindustrialproject analysis is to be developed.Systems analysisIn this book is presented a framework for project analysis thatis constructed around agroindustries' unique characteristics andthat is capable of incorporating analyses of the financial and socioeconomicdimensions within which. agroindustries lie. It treatsagroindustries as a component in a larger, seed-to-consumer systemof related parts, in which the system linkages create an interdependencebetween the actions and actors in the system. Thismethod necessarily examines the project implications of interdependentstages of the system. These implications hold whetherthe agroindustry is a state-owned enterprise or a privately ownedorganization.Agribusiness has been defined as involving those individuals andinstitutions engaged in the production, processing, transport, storage,financing, marketing, and regulation of the world's food andfiber products. 24 The agribusiness system is composed of operators,supporters, and coordinators. The operating organizations are thefarmers, transporters, warehousers, processors, and distributorswho handle the physical commodity as it flows from the farm tothe marketplace. The supporting institutions are the farm suppliers,financial entities, and research centers that contribute to thesystem's operators. The coordinators are governments, contractors,futures markets, and industrial associations that integrate the variousstages of the food-and-fiber system. These major componentsof the food-and-fiber system are illustrated in figure 1.The focus of this book is on the processing segment of the agroindustrialsystem. Although this may appear to be a narrower24. The term "agribusiness" was coined by John H. Davis and Ray A. Goldberg,who subsequently elaborated their concept in the book A Concept ofAgribusiness (Boston: Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration,Division of Research, 1967).