TOOL
Structuring your financial plan
The CAPEX / OPEX / cash-flow-per-cycle method, applied to crop and livestock projects.
An agricultural financial plan is not just an Excel spreadsheet: it must reflect the real biological cycles (growing seasons, batches, fattening cycles) and convince a funder. The 4-block method.
1. CAPEX — the investment
- Site works (land, buildings, ponds), equipment, initial biological material.
- Plan for renewal: service life and depreciation per item.
2. OPEX — the costs per cycle
- Inputs, labour, energy, transport, maintenance — per growing season or per batch.
- Never forget: normal losses (mortality, sorting rejects) and contingencies (5–10 %).
3. Revenue — prudent and sourced
- Local reference yields (not brochures), year-weighted average prices.
- Progressive ramp-up: year 1 ≠ cruising speed.
4. Cash flow — the crux of the matter
- Monthly cash-flow plan: the sowing→sale (or batch→slaughter) lag kills more projects than profitability does.
- Working capital sized on the longest cycle.
- This is exactly what steps 6 to 8 of the cycle — Finance — model, in FCFA and to the funders' formats.
Version 2026.1 — updated 19 August 2026