Economics of Farm Management

Abstract

The concept of farm management can be defined as the organization of land, labour, capital, and management (decision-making and risk-taking) in operating a farm enterprise to meet the stated objectives including profit maximisation. Of the four fundamental factors of production, management stands out in its onerous role in organizing all the others in meeting the defined objectives of the enterprise. Onerous as the role of management as a factor of production is, it cannot work in isolation of the others. There is therefore a need to discuss farm management as a concept with due focus on the notion of entrepreneurial spirit and at the same time bring out the peculiar features of the factors of production in working together to maintain a going concern. It is against this background that this chapter discusses the concept of farm management. The specific objectives of the chapter include defining the meaning and scope of farm management, highlighting the resources available to the farm enterprise, highlighting the relevance of entrepreneurship behaviour and entrepreneurship spirit in growing an enterprise, and highlighting the importance of farm management. The methodology adopted is descriptive. It is argued in this chapter that present and prospective farm managers should essentially have entrepreneurial spirit with which to start, grow, and expand their enterprise in line with the objective of the enterprise in question. Searching out investment opportunities and effectively ploughing back profits on existing or new investments for expansion enterprise is one of the decisions of management.