Crop Cost of Cultivation & Break-even Calculator
Your costs, your yield, your price: cost per acre, break-even price and profit.
Try before you buy.
- Free preview: the C2 cost of cultivation in full, with the first rows of the cost-concept table and of where the money goes; every other figure is hidden.
- Locked until you unlock it: download and copy.
- Unlock: Pro pass, ₹179 for 30 days, a one-time payment that never renews.
Ways to unlock shows how to get the full result.
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Crop and field
Costs
Type an amount, or a quantity × rate (10 days × 450). Leave a line empty to skip it; change a head or its description to suit your crop.
No cost lines yet: add one below or pick a crop under Start from.
Work out interest on working capital
Harvest and price
Results
Type the area of the field and your costs to see the results.
| Concept | Whole field | Per acre | Per acre | Per hectare | Break-even price | Profit | Cost of production (CACP) |
|---|
A2: paid-out costs (with your own machines, bullocks, seed and depreciation, as the CACP counts them) · A2+FL: with family labour · C2: also the rental value of your own land and interest on fixed capital.
Where the money goes
Save as my template
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Results are estimates for general information and planning, not financial advice. Banks and institutions may calculate differently (rounding, fees, rate changes). Confirm figures with your lender or a qualified adviser before deciding.
About the Crop Cost of Cultivation & Break-even Calculator
Add up what one crop costs you — seed, fertiliser, sprays, hired labour, tractor hire, irrigation, rent and interest — and see the cost per acre, hectare or bigha, the break-even price per quintal, the break-even yield and the profit at the yield and price you expect. Every amount is your own: the calculator has no market or support prices and suggests no rates.
The costs are grouped the way India’s Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) breaks up the cost of cultivation, so you also get its three cost concepts: A2 (paid-out costs), A2+FL (with the value of your family’s own work) and C2 (also the rental value of your own land and interest on your own capital). Start from a crop’s usual heads, change them freely, and save your own templates in this browser.
Without a pass, the free preview shows the C2 cost of cultivation in full, with the first rows of each table; the other figures, the whole tables, the summary copy and the CSV download need a Pro pass.
How to use it
- Pick a crop under Start from to load its usual cost heads (or keep “Any crop”), type the crop and season, and the area with its unit — acre, hectare, guntha, cent, a State bigha or your own local unit.
- Choose whether you type amounts for the whole field or for one acre (or your unit), then fill in each cost: an amount, or a quantity × rate such as “10 days × 450”. Tick or untick cash for what you pay out of pocket.
- Add the value of family labour, the rental value of your own land and interest on fixed capital if you want the full C2 cost; leave them empty to see only paid-out costs.
- Type the yield you expect (per acre or the whole harvest), its unit, the price you expect and the value of straw or other by-products.
- Read the cost per acre, break-even price and yield and the profit for A2, A2+FL and C2; then Copy summary or Download CSV with a pass, or after unlocking this result; Save as my template or Save to the farm diary keeps your figures as a crop’s budget in the Farm Diary.
Examples
Tractor hire 3,000 · seed 2,400 · hired labour 10 days × 450 · fertilisers 5,200 · sprays 1,800 · irrigation 1,500 · interest on the crop loan 600 · depreciation 500 · family labour 6 days × 450 · rental value of own land 10,000 · interest on fixed capital 800
A2 19,500 (9,750 an acre) · A2+FL 22,200 · C2 33,000 (16,500 an acre) · paid in cash 19,000
Family labour adds 2,700 to A2; the rental value of own land and interest on fixed capital add 10,800 more for C2. Depreciation is part of A2 but not of the cash you pay.
Yield 20 quintals an acre (40 quintals) · expected price 2,400 a quintal · straw worth 4,000
Gross income 100,000 · profit over C2 67,000 · break-even price (C2) 725 a quintal · break-even yield (C2) 6.042 quintals an acre · CACP cost of production (C2) 792 a quintal
Break-even price = (33,000 − 4,000) ÷ 40. The CACP’s cost of production gives the grain its share of the cost by value: 33,000 × 96,000 ÷ 100,000 ÷ 40.
Amounts typed for one acre on a 2.5-acre field: seed 1,000 an acre, family labour 400 an acre
Whole field: A2 2,500 · A2+FL 3,500
Common uses
- Planning next season: how much cash a crop needs before sowing, and the yield you must get to cover it.
- Comparing two crops for the same field on cost per acre and profit at your expected prices.
- Checking whether the price a trader offers covers your paid-out costs (A2) or your full cost (C2).
- Preparing a crop budget to discuss with a bank, a lender or a farmer producer organisation — with your own figures.
A2, A2+FL and C2: what each cost includes
India’s Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices uses three cost concepts in its price policy reports: A2 is the paid-out cost; A2+FL is the paid-out cost plus the imputed value of family labour; C2 adds the rental value of owned land (net of land revenue) and interest on fixed capital excluding land.
- In its break-up of the cost of cultivation, every head is part of A2 except family labour, the rental value of owned land and interest on fixed capital — so A2 also counts the value of your own bullocks and machines, home-grown seed and depreciation, even though you pay no one for them.
- That is why the calculator shows paid in cash separately: the lines you tick as cash.
- Leave the family labour, own-land rent and fixed-capital interest lines empty and A2, A2+FL and C2 come out the same.
Break-even price, break-even yield and cost of production
- Break-even price = (cost − value of by-products) ÷ harvest. At that price the grain and the straw together pay back the cost.
- Break-even yield = (cost − value of by-products) ÷ your price ÷ area: the harvest per acre you need at the price you expect.
- Cost of production, CACP method = cost × value of the main product ÷ value of all output ÷ harvest. The Commission works out cost of production from the cost of cultivation, the main product’s share of the gross value of output and the yield, so a crop with valuable straw carries less of its cost on the grain. Without by-products it equals the break-even price.
- Profit = harvest × price + by-products − cost, for each concept.
Valuing your own work, land and machines
- Family labour: the days you and your family spend on the crop × the wage you would pay a hired worker for the same work.
- Rental value of own land: what the field would earn for this season if you leased it out, less the land revenue you pay on it.
- Own machines and bullocks: the diesel, operator and upkeep, or what hiring the same work would cost.
- Interest on working capital: open “Work out interest” and type the amount borrowed, the yearly rate and the months — simple interest is added as a line.
- Interest on fixed capital: interest on the value of your machines, farm buildings, animals and wells (not the land), for this crop’s share.
Area units
Acre (43,560 sq ft), hectare (2.471 acres), guntha (1/40 acre), cent (1/100 acre) and are are the same everywhere. A bigha is not: the calculator offers the West Bengal bigha (14,400 sq ft) and the Haryana bigha before settlement and kanal, whose sizes their State revenue and registration departments state — the same units as the Land Area Converter. For any other bigha, a nali or a kani, choose Your local unit and type its size from your land record.
Limitations
- Every amount, yield and price is what you type: the calculator has no mandi, market or support prices and no wage or input rates.
- It does not check eligibility for any loan, insurance or subsidy, and it is not a crop loan scale of finance.
- Profit and break-even figures are estimates from your own expectations; the weather, pests and prices decide the real result.
- Costs are per crop and season: overheads you share between crops (a pump set, a tractor loan) need your own share for this crop.
Privacy
Your plan is kept as a draft in this browser so it is still there when you come back; templates you save stay in this browser too. Nothing you type is uploaded.
Frequently asked questions
What do I get without a pass?
Without a pass, Crop Cost of Cultivation & Break-even Calculator shows the C2 cost of cultivation in full, with the first rows of the cost-concept table and of where the money goes; every other figure is hidden. Until you unlock it, the result can’t be downloaded or copied. A Pro, Premium or Ultimate pass, a one-time payment that never renews, unlocks the full result. The pricing page lists the passes and their prices.
What is the difference between A2+FL and C2?
A2+FL is what you pay out plus the value of your family’s own work. C2 adds two more things a farmer gives up by using their own assets: the rent the land could earn if leased out, and interest on the capital tied up in machines, buildings and animals. C2 is the full cost; A2+FL is closer to the money and effort a season takes.
Why does A2 include depreciation and my own tractor if I paid nobody?
Because the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices counts them in its paid-out cost A2. The calculator follows that, and shows separately what you actually pay in cash — the lines ticked cash.
Should I count my family’s days of work?
If you want to know whether the crop pays you a fair wage, yes: value the days at the wage you would pay a hired worker. A2 leaves it out; A2+FL and C2 include it.
Does the calculator show the MSP or mandi prices?
No. Type the price you expect to get. For a minimum support price, use the figure the Government of India announces for your crop and season.
Can I use it for a crop measured in bags, crates or tonnes?
Yes. Choose tonnes or kilograms, or Other unit and give it a name (bag, crate, bale) and its weight if it has one: the break-even price is then per that unit.
Is what I type saved or sent anywhere?
It is kept as a draft in this browser on this device, and nothing is uploaded. Start again clears it.