Why input costs matter
Your input costs are the foundation of your farm profitability calculation. Without them, AADOPS cannot tell you what it actually cost to grow your harvest — and you cannot know whether your selling price is covering your costs. Many farmers sell at a loss without realising it because they have never calculated their true cost per kilogram.
Types of input costs
- Seeds and planting material — cost of seeds, seedlings, or cuttings used
- Fertiliser — NPK, urea, organic fertiliser, or compost
- Agrochemicals — herbicides, pesticides, fungicides
- Labour — cost of hired hands for planting, weeding, spraying, or harvesting
- Irrigation — fuel, water, or electricity costs for irrigation
- Equipment hire — cost of renting a tractor, sprayer, or thresher
- Transport — cost of moving inputs to the farm or harvest to market
- Other — any cost that does not fit the above categories
How to record an input cost
- Open the crop cycle you want to record the cost against
- Click + Add input cost
- Select the input type from the list
- Enter the description — e.g. "NPK fertiliser — 10 bags"
- Enter the quantity and unit cost
- Enter the date the cost was incurred
- Click Save
Repeat for every cost as it occurs throughout the growing season.
Tip: Record costs the day you incur them — not at harvest. A bag of fertiliser bought in March and recorded in June will distort your cost timeline and make it harder to compare season-to-season performance.