Choosing a Crop to Grow: Maize Enterprise Budget

We all want to make a profit in farming but what matters is the crops that can give us good profit margin and as well as when should those crops be grown.

I always tell farmers that all crops can give us good profit for as long as we have timing. Last year I had a conversation with a certain accountant from a certain school in Muchinga province who liked growing maize at all cost. Well I had to give him my views and analysis of few crops for her to get the picture and decide whether to continue growing maize or venture into other crops. Below is my enterprise budget analysis to her and I think it can be of help to you in one way or another.

"You see madam, maize is good to grow because the market is always available as it is our stable food but show me one person who failed to grow maize even for his consumption!! It is a crop which we all can grow. In most cases we start the land preparation in November if not October or even September. If we pick October as our starting month then we go all through to May when we harvest and up to June when we take it for marketing (9 months). On average one hectare can yield about 160 to 200 bags of 50kg. Let's go for 180 bags which is also rare to be accomplished but just for the sake of analysis. The common available market is FRA (Food Reserve Agency) which is buying at K110 per 50kg. So if we sell 180 bags at K110 = K19, 800. It sounds good right? Maybe yes or no. Then let's make a budget for maize enterprise in one hectare. We will assume you own the land.

• You need 25kg of seed. Average K700
• 8 bags of fertilisers. We will put each bag at K550 = K4, 400
• Labour for land preparation (it varies) = K500
• Weed killers. 2 bottles of selective herbicide at K270 each = K540
• 2 bottles of insecticides (Amamectine benzoate or Lambda- cyhalothrine) K200 per litre per bottle = K400
• Labour for harvesting. We assume = K500
• Storage chemicals; you will need about 25 × 200 grams of grain protectant. Each at K40 = K1, 000

Total expenditure = K8, 040

We have not put transportation costs from the field to your storage or to the market for some reasons but you can put at you own time. There are also some hidden costs which you can put as you remember them.

So now we do K19, 800 - K8, 040 = K11, 760 as your profit in 9 months if you are lucky to sell and receive your money in June.

Then how much is your pay per month in those 9 months. We divide our profit with 9 = K1, 306.

Ok that is rainfed maize for you but is there any other crop we can invest our K8, 040 to give us a good profit margin and maybe in shorter period than Maize?" I asked her. Before she could reply I suggested the famous crop on the market, Tomato.