Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
3 - Farm analysis and planning
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 October 2018
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Farm management
- 3 Farm analysis and planning
- 4 Principles of production
- 5 Costs and returns
- 6 Farm profits, financial statements and records
- 7 Cash flows
- 8 Gross margins
- 9 Time is money
- 10 Planning changes
- 11 Cropping
- 12 Animals
- 13 Mechanisation
- 14 Farm development
- 15 Farm credit and finance
- 16 Beyond the farm
- Appendix 1 Interest rate tables
- Appendix 2 Metric conversion
- Glossary
- Index
Summary
This volume is about using some of the useful techniques which apply ‘economic’ ways of thinking to farm management. Farming is mostly a physical, biological activity - but it does have its human, as well as its economic aspects, which cannot be ignored. We will ask you to pretend that you are to go out to a farm that you have never seen before, and to bring back a report on what the farm is like. Some of the questions you will have to answer are, what:
are its strengths and weaknesses?
makes the farmer and the farmer's family ‘tick'?
does the farmer and his family need from the farm?
does he (they) want to do with, or to have, or to get from, his (their) life?
are the main problems of the farm?
is the financial picture, the limitations, and the potential?
We have prepared a list of the questions that you would need to find answers to, if you were going to report back on the farmer and the farm. Remember, we are approaching this subject from an ‘economic’ point of view, so you will need to tell us how you are going to advise the farmer how to make more ‘profit'. We will define ‘profit’ and ‘economic point of view’ later.
We have tried to cover most aspects off arm analysis and planning. Not all of the topics covered in Table 3.1 will apply to your situation, and there will be some that do apply which we have not mentioned. After studying Table 3.1 you should use it as a guide to compile your own -list for your situation. Table 3.1 covers human, physical and financial aspects. We expand on these three sections in this chapter but it is important to note that for a full explanation, you will need to read the relevant chapter. In economics, unlike much of science, many of the terms used can mean different things to different people. For this reason, in later chapters we discuss the ranges of meanings and interpretations commonly given to key terms and ideas used in economic analysis.
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- Information
- The Economics of Tropical Farm Management , pp. 11 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985