Project information

Production Parameters.

Below is a presentation of planting parameters of the project.

Number of months for lettuce to mature	5
Number of centimeters plant spacing	25
Number of plants/square meter	16
Number of square meters per seedbed	135
Number of hectors to be planted/cycle	7.5
Total seedbeds for the planting season	556
Number of plants in a seedbed	2160
Total lettuce plants to be planted	1200000

Labor hours/planting season
Planned Labor hours/day	8
Number of days/month	21.875
Labor hours/month	175
Number of months planting season	5
Labor hours in a planting cycle	875
Number of required employees	6
Total Labor hours per planting season	5250
Number of plants to be produced in a cyle	1200000
Number of plant to be planted/hour	229

The farm will be rotated with other vegetables such as green papers and spinach to prevent pests from building up.

2. 
   Management and Institution
   

Mr. M.D. Xuba, the managing director will be responsible for the day to day operations of this farming enterprise. As a managing director, he will be responsible for financial, human resource, operations, and marketing management functions.

4. 
   SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
   

The farm is committed to the development of its employees’ skills. A monthly contribution of 1% of the wages bill has been budgeted to contribute towards skills development of employees in accordance with the skills development act of 1998.

1. 
   Available Skills
   

• 
  Entrepreneurial and small business management skills
  

1. 
   Required Skills
   

• 
  The project requires plant production skills at NQF level one.
  

5. 
   MARKETING
   
   1. 
      Situational Analysis
      

The previous farmer sold their produce through fresh produce marketing agents. Mdx Agri has also appointed Grow Fresh Produce Agents to sell their products. The major benefit of selling through agents is access to a wide range of national buyers of vegetables. The other advantage of this distribution channel is that it offers some level of sales certainty provided that the products are competitively priced and the quality is good. Mdx Agri will continue with fresh produce market agents for the foreseeable futire.

2. 
   Marketing Objectives
   

Short Term Objectives – To sell 2 88 000 lettuce heads in the year of commencement.
Medium Term Objectives - Introduce new products
Long Term Objective – Sell our products in the fresh produce export market

3. 
   Product Range
   

Mdx Agri will produce 1200000 lettuce head in a cycle of 5 months. The selling price per unit is R5-00. R5-00 is the average price/unit in the market for lettuce.