Farmers all over the world have to decide what to produce and how to go about it. In the tropics, small farmers have to work with a limited resource-base which usually does not lead itself to highly productive systems of consistent crop and animal production. Yet those people who live in developing tropical countries should be concerned that their farmers do produce more from the limited resources with which they have to work. The principles of farm management economics and the applications of the tools and techniques of farm management analysis and planning can help small farmers in tropics to produce 'a bit more' from their lot. For the benefit of teachers and students of agriculture, farm extension advisors and agricultural planners and managers, this book sets out the principles and practices of farm management economics on small holdings in the tropics in a clear, simple, useful and usable way.

Preface

i

Acknowledgements

iv

Introduction

1

(4)

Target audience

3

(1)

Questions

4

(1)

Farm management

5

(6)

The place of farm management

5

(1)

What makes a good farm manager?

6

(1)

Resource management

7

(1)

Decision-making

8

(1)

Applications to various types of farms

8

(1)

Subsistence and semi-subsistence farms

8

(1)

Problems and decisions

9

(1)

Human relations in farm management

10

(1)

Management and labour

10

(1)

Questions

10

(1)

Farm analysis and planning

11

(14)

Human

11

(6)

Physical

17

(5)

Financial

22

(2)

Questions

24

(1)

Principles of production

25

(14)

Introduction

25

(1)

Technical principles

25

(6)

Economic principles

31

(7)

Questions

38

(1)

Costs and returns

39

(9)

Costs in theory

39

(2)

Costs in practice

41

(4)

Farm returns

45

(2)

Questions

47

(1)

Farm profits, financial statements and records

48

(8)

Profit

48

(1)

Presentation of financial results--farm financial statements ('accounts')

49

(1)

Return on capital

49

(4)

Records

53

(2)

Questions

55

(1)

Cash flows

56

(5)

Introduction

56

(1)

Cash flow budgets

56

(1)

Comparison of actual and budgeted returns

56

(1)

Cash development budget

57

(1)

Food and cash flow budget

58

(2)

Questions

60

(1)

Gross margins

61

(6)

Introduction

61

(1)

Calculating activity gross margins

61

(1)

Gross margins for crops

62

(1)

Gross margins for animals

63

(1)

Use of gross margins in planning

64

(1)

Application to semi-subsistence farms

65

(1)

The use and usefulness of gross margins for planning

65

(1)

Questions

66

(1)

Time is money

67

(11)

Introduction

67

(1)

Compounding and discounting

68

(2)

Inflation

70

(1)

Interest rates

71

(1)

Discounting in theory and in practice

72

(1)

Three ways of judging projects

73

(2)

Forecasting

75

(1)

Productive values

75

(2)

Perpetuities

77

(1)

Questions

77

(1)

Planning changes

78

(17)

Budgeting techniques

78

(7)

Decision-making and risk

85

(4)

Break-even and parametric budgeting

89

(3)

Climatic and yield variability

92

(1)

Some specific measures to cope with income variability

92

(2)

Questions

94

(1)

Cropping

95

(20)

Introduction

95

(1)

Rotations

95

(8)

Mixed cropping

103

(6)

Harvesting and marketing

109

(2)

Tree crops

111

(3)

Questions

114

(1)

Animals

115

(12)

Introduction

115

(1)

Animal management economics

116

(1)

Checklist of main animal costs

117

(1)

Economic analysis of animal enterprises

117

(4)

Utilising productive pastures and fodder crops

121

(1)

Intensive production feeding

122

(1)

Draught animals

123

(1)

Breeding

123

(3)

Questions

126

(1)

Mechanisation

127

(13)

Theory

127

(6)

Practice

133

(5)

Questions

138

(2)

Farm development

140

(6)

Introduction

140

(1)

Return on extra (marginal) capital

140

(1)

Steps in development budgeting

141

(4)

Questions

145

(1)

Farm credit and finance

146

(8)

Theory

146

(5)

Practice

151

(1)

Questions

152

(2)

Beyond the farm

154

(10)

Causes and effects: a note

154

(1)

The market and government

155

(1)

Marketing boards and markets

156

(1)

Government in farming

157

(1)

Credit

157

(1)

Mechanisation

158

(1)

Education

159

(1)

Training for farm management

160

(3)

The telecommunication revolution

163

(1)

To conclude

163

(1)

Appendix 1 Interest rate tables

164

(6)

Appendix 2 Metric conversion

170

(2)

The basic units

170

(2)

Glossary

172

(3)

Index

175

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The Economics of Tropical Farm Management

9780521313674

0521313678

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