Tools · Interactive

Farm economics feasibility calculator

The arithmetic from the Economics & Markets chapter, live: hectares, dried yield, price, labor, drying loss and other income in — gross revenue, honest costs, net, and the two numbers that decide everything, your break-even price and return on cash cost. No data leaves your browser.

All figures are illustrative assumptions from the chapter — replace them with your own written quotes · currency-agnostic (enter USD or your local currency)

Price honesty warning The chapter's ranges — local ~$1.5–2.5/kg, wholesale ~$2.5–4/kg, organic export ~$5–8/kg — are for shaping your thinking, not your business plan. A calculator fed assumptions returns assumptions: get three current, written price-and-spec quotes from real buyers in your region before committing land.

1 · Your farm assumptions

System presets — the chapter's three illustrative systems (editable after applying)
Trial scale of 0.1–0.5 ha is the chapter's advice for year one.
Dried basis, before losses. Typical range 0.5–3 t/ha, strongly management-dependent.
Context: ~$1.5–2.5 local · ~$2.5–4 wholesale · ~$5–8 organic export.
Sorting rejects, mold, breakage, moisture shortfalls — loss before the scale reads sold.
The dominant cost block (40–60% of cash cost per the chapter). Hired labor, not family time.
Land prep, seed, fertility & water, drying & processing, overhead & compliance.
Secondary streams: leaves (gongura-type), fresh festive-season calyces, seed.

2 · Price discovery — three written quotes

The chapter's first feasibility rule: price discovery comes before land prep. Visit or call three buyers and ask for written price-and-spec sheets — grade, moisture, form, quantity, timing. If nobody can name a price and a spec, you don't have a market yet — you have a hobby.

Log your written quotes — price and spec for each buyer
Quote 1
Quote 2
Quote 3

3 · Your numbers

4 · Sensitivity — how ±20% swings move your net

Each bar varies one input from −20% to +20% (drying loss swings relative to your current %), holding everything else at your numbers above. Wide bars are your big levers; the dashed line is break-even.

5 · How you compare to the chapter's systems

Chapter columns are its stated illustrative ranges (1 ha, one season, dried whole calyx); the highlighted You column is computed from your assumptions above.

The one-paragraph feasibility test

Reality checks the chapter keeps returning to
  • Price discovery comes before land prep — no written spec, no market.
  • Yield × price both move the outcome; a mid-level system managed well beats a weak one with a premium label.
  • Labor caps your hectares, not the other way around — plan the crew before the acreage.
  • Drying capacity is production capacity — under-sizing the dryer is how good harvests become losses.
  • Cash-flow the season: costs concentrate at planting and harvest, revenue lands after drying — fund the trough in between.

How the math works

Revenue: dried calyces sold = hectares × yield (t/ha) × 1000 × (1 − drying loss %), at your price per kg; other income adds per-hectare streams (leaves, fresh, seed). Costs: labor plus all other cash costs, per hectare. Net: gross minus total cash cost — family labor excluded, exactly as the chapter's illustrative nets are stated. Break-even price = total cash cost ÷ kg sold: the lowest price at which you cover cash costs. Break-even yield = the dried yield (before losses) needed to cover costs at your price. Return on cash cost = net ÷ total cash cost — a quick feel for whether the season beats your alternative use of land, time and money.

Related chapters →