Elements of Farm Management
AGEC 332

NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPT. OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND RURAL SOCIOLOGY

Instructor: Dr. Godfrey Ejimakor
Office Hours: 9 – 10am, MWF or by appointment
Meeting Time: 10 – 11:30am, Tuesday, Thursday

Text: Harsh, Stephens B., L. J. Connor, and G. D. Schwab, Managing the Farm Business, Prentice Hall, 1981.

References: (On Closed Reserve in Bluford Library)

• Bradford, L. A. and Glen Johnson, Farm Management analysis, John Wiley, 1953.

• Castle, Emery N., M. H. Becker, and F. J. Smith, Farm Business Management, Macmillan, 1972.

• Osburn, Donald D., and K. C. Schneeberger, Modern Agricultural Management, Prentice Hall, 1978.

• Heady, Earl O., Economics of Agricultural Production and Resource Use, Prentice-Hall, 1952.

Course Objective: The objective of this course is to make students familiar with management decision-making techniques. Concepts and principles from economics, accounting and finance will be used. Issues that deal with organization, operation and analysis of farm business enterprises will be addressed.

Grading: Grades will be determined as follows:

Midterm Exam. #1 25%
Midterm Exam. #2 25
Assignments 20
Final Exam. 30

Total 100

1. Introduction (Chapters 1, 2, 4):

Concept and scope of management, the decision-making process, information for management decisions, forms of business organizations.

2. Technical and Economic Aspects of Management (Chapter 3)

Production functions, total, average, and marginal physical products, stages of production, technical efficiency, price efficiency, input relationships, product relationships, costs, types of costs, relationships between costs, use of costs in decision-making, economies of size and scale.

3. . Use of Marketing and Accounting Concepts in Management

(Chapters 5 and 8)

Marketing outlets and options, marketing functions, input purchases, accounting information systems, net worth and income statements, cash flow summary, financial ratios and analysis, trend analysis.

4. Farm Planning and Investment Decisions (Chapters 9, 10, 11)

Enterprise budgets, analysis of enterprise alternatives, linear programming, capital budgeting techniques.

 

5. Risk and Uncertainty in Management (Chapter 14)

Decision Criteria under risk, strategies to address uncertainty.