In order to guide farmers in Niger to make better informed decisions about their farming activities, a training on Gross Margin Analysis was organized to empower them with necessary skills to determine their farms’ profitability. Gross Margin Analysis (GMA) is a simple, reliable tool to assess the financial performance of an enterprise. This training would help farmers to calculate the productivity of their farms and compare the performance of different technologies and practices they applied, leading to better management of their farms.

1. NewsletterHappenings
In-house version 20 November 2020, No.1881
Gross Margin Analysis – A tool for better farm
management
Participants discuss their learning during the training session.
Photo: C Umutoni, ICRISAT
In order to guide farmers in Niger to make better
informed decisions about their farming activities, a
training on Gross Margin Analysis was organized to
empower them with necessary skills to determine their
farms’ profitability. Gross Margin Analysis (GMA) is a
simple, reliable tool to assess the financial performance
of an enterprise. This training would help farmers to
calculate the productivity of their farms and compare the
performance of different technologies and practices they
applied, leading to better management of their farms.
Farmers in Niger are eager for a change in the way they
manage their farms. Traditionally, they have planted
crops and raised animals without knowing for sure if
they were going to make a profit out of that. Many
farmers claim, “We farm what we know we can farm
and hope that the season is a good one.” There is little
evidence of the economic viability of farming activities
and minimal adoption of profitable technologies.
Possibly, this leads to their incomes remaining very low.
“I’ve always practiced sheep fattening in the traditional
way, but after carrying out a gross margin analysis on
sheep fattening, it is clear that I can make around 20,000
CFA (US$ 40) more per sheep if I adopt a better feeding
strategy for my sheep,” says Ms Mariam Yero, one of the
training participants. “Also, from the gross margin of
goat rearing I realized that I can make around 185,000
CFA (US$ 335) per year by only starting with two female
goats and one male goat.”
“Until now, I never realized that we only make a profit of
30,000 CFA/ha of millet we cultivate,” says Mr Moussa
Oumarou. “From the analysis we conducted, I can see
that we can raise this amount to 160,000 CFA (US$ 300)
just by adopting an integrated production system (using
improved dual-purpose millet +cowpea, using compost
and applying the fertilizer to seed hole). This training is
an eye-opener to us.”
A training session for farmers in Niger
This work contributes
to UN Sustainable
Development Goals