Add up seed, fertiliser, labour, machinery, irrigation and interest, set your expected yield and rate, and see gross return, net profit, cost of production per quintal, and the break-even yield you must hit.
The calculator above turns your inputs into seven numbers. Here is what each one actually means, and the one question it answers when you are deciding whether to sow this crop at all.
Your total yield multiplied by your selling price, before a single rupee of cost comes out. It is the number that looks best on its own — and the one most likely to mislead, because a high gross revenue on a high-cost crop can still lose money. Never judge a crop on this figure alone.
Every rupee spent to grow the crop on that land, seed to land rent, added up per acre and scaled to your area. Miss one head — most often labour or land rent — and every number that follows it is wrong. Add up what you actually spend, not what feels right.
Gross revenue minus total cost. This is what the season actually put in your hand. Use it to compare this crop against what the same land would have earned under a different crop, not just against last year — costs move every season.
Net profit shown as a share of what you spent, not of what you earned. A thin margin means a small shock — a late spray, a fallen price — can wipe the season out. A wide margin is the cushion that lets you absorb one.
What one quintal of your produce actually cost you to grow, all-in. This is the number to hold against the mandi rate on the day you sell, not the MSP and not gross revenue — it tells you the price below which that quintal is a loss.
The yield below which the crop does not cover its own cost, at your expected price. Check it against what your field has actually produced in a bad year, not your best one — that gap is your real margin of safety.
The price below which even your expected yield fails to cover cost. Check it against the MSP if the crop has one, and against what your local mandi actually paid last season — the two are often not the same number.
Three reference cost sheets from the calculator above — a cereal, a fibre crop and a vegetable — so you can see how differently the same eight heads split depending on what you grow.
Total cost per acre: ₹34,800
Total cost per acre: ₹48,500
Total cost per acre: ₹69,500
These are the same reference cost sheets built into the calculator above. Pick your own crop there to see its split, or edit any line to match your field — this section is illustrative, not a substitute for your own numbers.
Yield and price move on their own. These six habits are the ones a farmer actually controls.
A Soil Health Card is free and often shows a field already carries enough phosphorus or potash from past years of DAP. Fertilising the gap instead of the full book dose is money back in your pocket before the season even starts.
A tractor or harvester sitting idle eleven months a year is a cost, not an asset. Below a certain area, custom hiring centres and local contractors work out cheaper per acre than ownership, once fuel, repair and depreciation are counted honestly.
Water that runs off or evaporates before the root zone is a cost with no yield behind it. Levelling the field, irrigating in the cool hours, and drip or sprinkler on high-value crops all raise the yield you get per rupee of irrigation cost.
A certified or hybrid seed usually costs more than farm-saved seed, but the yield gap it closes is normally worth several times the price difference. Compare varieties on cost per quintal produced, not on the price of the seed packet.
Selling the day after harvest, when every farmer nearby is doing the same, is when mandi rates are usually at their weakest. Where storage is available and the crop keeps, staggering your sale over a few weeks often captures a better average price.
A cost sheet built from memory at the end of the season is usually short by a fifth or more — small cash payments to labour and the odd machinery hire are the first things forgotten. A notebook kept through the season is the cheapest tool on this list.
Seven forces decide whether a season turns a profit. Some you can manage; some you can only plan around.
The single biggest lever on profit. A 10% swing in yield moves gross revenue by 10% with the cost side barely moving — which is exactly why break-even yield matters more than any other number on this page.
The price on the day you actually sell, not the MSP or the price you budgeted with. For crops without price support, this swings on its own through the season and can move profit as much as yield does.
A dry spell at flowering or a hailstorm before harvest touches both sides at once — it cuts yield and adds the cost of whatever you spend trying to save the crop. It is the one factor on this list you cannot manage, only insure and plan around.
Every untreated attack is a yield loss and every spray is a cost — the two work against each other, which is why timing matters more than the number of sprays. Scouting the field regularly catches an outbreak while treating it is still cheap.
Seed, fertiliser, pesticide and diesel prices move independently of your crop and your yield. A season with an ordinary yield but a spike in fertiliser or diesel prices can still finish with a thin margin.
A crop watered on schedule and one watered late on the same field can finish a full grade apart on yield. Where canal or groundwater access is unreliable, it decides which crop is even worth sowing.
Poor germination means a thinner stand no amount of later input can fully make up for. Certified seed from a known source costs more at the shop and is usually the cheaper choice by harvest.
How much a single swing in yield, price or a cost head can move the season — worked out on a 1-acre wheat example using the reference cost sheet built into the calculator above.
Reference case · Wheat
₹16,900
1 acre, reference cost sheet, expected yield and MSP
Same cost, same price — only the harvest is bigger.
₹22,070
+₹5,170 vs reference case
A shortfall from pests, weather or a weak stand, cost unchanged.
₹11,730
-₹5,170 vs reference case
Same harvest, sold into a stronger market.
₹22,070
+₹5,170 vs reference case
Same harvest, sold at a weaker rate or under distress.
₹11,730
-₹5,170 vs reference case
Yield and price unchanged — only one input line moves.
₹16,060
-₹840 vs reference case
These are illustrative examples on a fixed reference crop, not your figures. They do not read or change the calculator above — enter your own numbers there to see your actual result.
Every one of these quietly overstates profit — and every one is easy to fix once you have seen it written down.
On owned land it is tempting to leave land rent out because no cheque is written for it. But that land could have been let out for rent instead of sown — leaving the head blank overstates profit by the exact amount the land is worth.
Do this instead: Enter the actual rent if the land is leased, or what you could rent it out for if you own it.
Family labour that never gets a wage slip is still labour. Counting only hired, paid-in-cash labour and leaving out the family days spent weeding, watching irrigation and harvesting understates the true cost of the crop.
Do this instead: Cost family labour at the local going wage for the same work, and include it alongside hired labour.
MSP is a support price for a limited list of crops, procured at limited centres, in a limited window — not a guaranteed sale price at your farm gate. Most vegetables, fruits and spices have no MSP at all and are priced entirely by the market.
Do this instead: Budget with the price your local mandi actually paid last season, and treat MSP as a floor to compare against, not the number to plan around.
A cost sheet reconstructed from memory at the end of the season is almost always short — small cash payments, an extra spray, a second hired tractor pass are the first things forgotten, and each one quietly inflates the profit you think you made.
Do this instead: Keep a running notebook through the season — one line per expense, on the day it happens.
Cartage to the mandi, market fee and commission, weighing charges, bags, and storage or spoilage losses between harvest and sale all come off the price you actually realise. Leaving them out makes the crop look more profitable than it was.
Do this instead: Add a transport and post-harvest line to your cost sheet, even as an estimate, rather than leaving it out entirely.
The questions farmers ask most about working out whether a crop actually pays.
Pick a crop to load a typical cost sheet, then edit the eight cost lines, area, expected yield and expected rate to match your own field. The calculator multiplies your yield by your area to get total produce, multiplies that by your rate for gross revenue, adds up the eight cost heads for total cost, and shows you net profit, margin, cost of production, break-even yield and break-even price — all recalculated instantly as you change any figure.
Net profit is gross revenue minus total cost — total yield times selling price, minus the sum of seed, fertiliser, pesticide, labour, machinery, irrigation, interest and land rent, all scaled to your area. A negative number means the crop cost more to grow than it earned back at your expected price.
Gross revenue is your total yield (yield per acre times your area) multiplied by your expected selling rate. It is the income side only — no cost has been subtracted yet, which is why it should never be read as profit on its own.
Break-even yield is the yield at which gross revenue exactly equals total cost, at your expected price — worked out as your cost per acre divided by your price per quintal. Harvest below it and you lose money even if you sell at the price you planned for; harvest above it and every extra quintal is profit.
Break-even price is the selling rate at which gross revenue exactly equals total cost, at your expected yield — worked out as your cost per acre divided by your expected yield. Sell below it and the crop loses money even if the harvest is exactly what you expected.
Yes. Family labour that is not paid a cash wage is still a real cost — it is time that could have gone to another crop, another job, or been paid to a hired hand instead. Cost it at the local going wage for the same work, or your net profit will be overstated by however many family labour-days went into the crop.
Because owning land does not make its use free — that land could have been rented out to someone else instead of sown with this crop. Leaving out land rent (actual, if leased, or the rent you could have earned, if owned) overstates profit by exactly what the land is worth, and makes it impossible to compare this crop fairly against renting the land out.
It works for any crop, because the underlying formula — yield times price, minus the eight cost heads — does not depend on which crop you grow. The dropdown carries reference cost sheets and typical yields for a wide range of cereals, pulses, oilseeds, vegetables, spices and fruit crops to save you typing in a starting figure, but every field is fully editable for a crop or a region the presets do not match exactly.
Not necessarily. MSP is a government support price for a limited list of crops, bought at government-notified procurement centres within a limited window, and it does not guarantee that every farmer selling that crop receives it. Many crops — most vegetables, fruits and spices among them — have no MSP at all and are priced entirely by the market, which is why several presets in this calculator show no MSP.
The reliable levers are the ones you control day to day: a soil test before buying fertiliser, comparing machinery hire against ownership, tightening irrigation efficiency, sowing a higher-yielding variety, timing the sale instead of selling on harvest day by default, and keeping an honest running cost sheet so you know your real break-even point before you decide how and when to sell.
All eight heads in the calculator above — seed, fertiliser, pesticide, labour (hired and family), machinery, irrigation, interest on working capital, and land rent (actual or imputed) — plus, where relevant, transport to the mandi, market fee and commission, and storage or spoilage losses. Leaving any of these out understates cost and overstates profit.
The arithmetic is exact and is checked automatically against hand-computed figures on every build. What can vary is the input: the reference cost sheets and yields are general figures for an average field, and your actual costs, yield and selling price will differ. The calculator is only as accurate as the numbers you put into it — which is exactly why every line is editable.
Longer reads on cost, pricing and record-keeping, for the farm-economics side of the same decision.
A land record proves you own the field. A farm record proves what actually happened on it — and it is the one document a bank, an insurer or your own memory a year from now will all eventually ask for.
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