greenhouses I shade net I hydroponics I aquaponics
A Horticultural Cluster –
Solution for Sectoral Growth and Food Security Functioning on own merits and philosophies have never brought around powerful outcomes – not in politics, not in economies and neither in horticulture. The answer lies in grouping together experience, capabilities and resources in what one would call ‘clusters’. In the Netherlands a successful program was established and mirrored in Ethiopia to prove it is not only possible in a particular country.
T
he competitive strength of nations is determined by four interrelated determinants that shape the national environment. Factors of production can be categorized into several groups: Human resources: the quantity, skills and cost of personnel for a certain sector. Physical resources: the abundance, quality, accessibility and cost of the nation’s physical resources, such as climate, land, water and power. Knowledge resources: the nation’s stock of scientific, technical and market knowledge on goods and services. Infrastructure: the type, quality and user cost of infrastructure that affects competition. This includes the transportation system, the communication system, etc. as well as less obvious
infrastructure that affects the quality of Good cooperation between producers life and the attractiveness of a nation as a can, however, also form a competitive place to live and work. advantage if producers help each other to attain a higher qualitative or quantitative The structure of a company is level of production. determined by the style of management in a Clusters are geographic The structure company, or in a country concentrations of of a company is as a whole. Possible interconnected companies determined by the differences in management and institutions in a styles can, for example, style of management particular field. As such, result in more hierarchical in a company, or in a they must combine all the company structures best of the determinants country as a whole. or in more flattened mentioned above. In company structures. Rivalry between general, clusters encompass arrays of companies in a country spurs innovation. linked industries and other entities that Domestic rivalry is more intense and are important to competition. This motivating than international competition, implies that, besides regular competitors, because within a domestic rivalry all clusters can also include manufacturers of companies are on a level playing field. complementary products and companies
14 Undercover farming I July/August 2021 I Volume 18 No 4
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