How to keep farm records
Feb 03, 2009
IT is important to keep farm records to assess the progress. Farming is a business like any other, in which one must know the inputs and the profits.
By Kikonyogo Ngatya
IT is important to keep farm records to assess the progress. Farming is a business like any other, in which one must know the inputs and the profits. It can be as simple as an exercise book, but it will help you monitor the following:
Rural Wage Rates: Agricultural/rural wage is defined as payment for hired labour for carrying out various farming operations. The most common forms of hired labour are casual, permanent and contract. For estimating the cost of production, casual labour wage rate per person per day is used for valuing labour input.
Person-days
This is a measure of agricultural labour an adult works, equivalent to the number of hours per day. In order to achieve standardisation, six hours is normally considered equivalent to a one-person day, irrespective of sex and type of work.
Children below 15 years are the equivalent to half of an adult’s labour.
For both hired and family labour, the number of person hours worked for each farm operation is ascertained and converted to person days accordingly.
Cost of Farm Inputs
Inputs are valued at cost price basis, (i.e. at market prices at the time of purchase, plus transport cost or actual cost incurred by the farmer), even if the farmer uses their own inputs, or inputs from previous seasons. However, since prices paid for various inputs and costs incurred in transportation are likely to differ for every farmer, prevailing rural market prices are used to cost farm inputs.
Yield
This is a measure of total output obtained per unit area. For consistency, the total output obtained by farmers is converted to per hectare basis. The physical data on output is measured in kilogrammes.
Partial budget
This normally refers to the crop-wise budget for estimating the cost of producing a unit of a given crop. It is based on pure stands converted to per hectare basis.
Value of Output
This is calculated by multiplying the yield (i.e output per unit area) by the farm gate price. It is normally measured in shillings per ha.
Output:Input Ratio
This is a measure of profitability involving comparing total output value against total input costs. It is obtained by dividing the farm gate price by the unit cost of production. The higher the ratio, the more profitable the enterprise.
Net Profit
This is calculated from the data collected as gross income net of all costs.
It differs from gross margins in that family labour is included in its calculation.
Farmers’ Terms of Trade
This is a comparison of the prices realised from the sale of products to the cost of the most common commodities bought and used by farmers.
IT is important to keep farm records to assess the progress. Farming is a business like any other, in which one must know the inputs and the profits. It can be as simple as an exercise book, but it will help you monitor the following:
Rural Wage Rates: Agricultural/rural wage is defined as payment for hired labour for carrying out various farming operations. The most common forms of hired labour are casual, permanent and contract. For estimating the cost of production, casual labour wage rate per person per day is used for valuing labour input.
Person-days
This is a measure of agricultural labour an adult works, equivalent to the number of hours per day. In order to achieve standardisation, six hours is normally considered equivalent to a one-person day, irrespective of sex and type of work.
Children below 15 years are the equivalent to half of an adult’s labour.
For both hired and family labour, the number of person hours worked for each farm operation is ascertained and converted to person days accordingly.
Cost of Farm Inputs
Inputs are valued at cost price basis, (i.e. at market prices at the time of purchase, plus transport cost or actual cost incurred by the farmer), even if the farmer uses their own inputs, or inputs from previous seasons. However, since prices paid for various inputs and costs incurred in transportation are likely to differ for every farmer, prevailing rural market prices are used to cost farm inputs.
Yield
This is a measure of total output obtained per unit area. For consistency, the total output obtained by farmers is converted to per hectare basis. The physical data on output is measured in kilogrammes.
Partial budget
This normally refers to the crop-wise budget for estimating the cost of producing a unit of a given crop. It is based on pure stands converted to per hectare basis.
Value of Output
This is calculated by multiplying the yield (i.e output per unit area) by the farm gate price. It is normally measured in shillings per ha.
Output:Input Ratio
This is a measure of profitability involving comparing total output value against total input costs. It is obtained by dividing the farm gate price by the unit cost of production. The higher the ratio, the more profitable the enterprise.
Net Profit
This is calculated from the data collected as gross income net of all costs.
It differs from gross margins in that family labour is included in its calculation.
Farmers’ Terms of Trade
This is a comparison of the prices realised from the sale of products to the cost of the most common commodities bought and used by farmers.