Page 328 - Agriculture_Form_Three

Agriculture for Secondary Schools

(usually this can be done at the end by dividing total gross margin by size of the
flock or productive animals in the farm) or per farmer (to understand who or which
farming household properly managed the farm enterprise). Table 15.1 further shows
an example of how to compute gross margin by using a hypothetical common beans
farming.

Table 15.1: Computation of Gross Margin for common beans farming

Variable Units/hectare Amount (TZS)
Gross revenue
Average yield (kilograms) 1,800
Average farm gate price per kg (TZS) 1,200
Total Revenue (A) 2,160,000
Variable costs
Cost of materials

Seeds (kilograms) 45.5 78,500
Land hire (hectares) 1 94,500
Fertiliser (kilograms) 68 94,750
Herbicides (litres) 1 19,000
Insecticides (litres) 0.91 15,500
Bags (bags) 6 6,500
Total cost for materials (B) 403,250

Labour costs
Land clearance (man-days) 4 21,400
First ploughing (man-days) 12 68,000
Second ploughing (man-days) 7 37,000
Planting and fertiliser application (man-days) 9 49,500
First weeding (man-days) 10 58,000
Second weeding (man-days) 5 18,000
Pesticide/herbicide application (man-days) 1 11,000

Harvesting and threshing (man-days) 9 54,000
Sorting and packaging (man-days) 4 23,500
Packing in store (man-days) 2 8,700
Transportation (trips) 1 14,500
Total labour costs (C) 363,600
Total Variable Cost/hectare = B + C 766,850
Gross Margin/hectare = Gross Income (A) - Total variable 1,393,150
costs (B + C)

Student’s Book Form Twos Book Form Three
Student’
317

10/01/2025 12:32
AGRICULTURE FORM 3 9.11.2022.indd 317
AGRICULTURE FORM 3 9.11.2022.indd 317 10/01/2025 12:32