You came to the right place if you are looking for the most profitable crops to grow on a small farm.
Agriculture is a serious business, no matter if it is on a small farm. So, before you even start thinking about what agricultural crop is most profitable per acre, be sure to meet all the requirements and good knowledge of the business. A good advice would be to set the goals for your farm, whether you will consider it a full or a part-time job etc. Then you should do some research on market demands, equipment you would need, such as irrigation system or greenhouse supplies. That is a lot of preparation before our main question here, and that’s the most profitable crops for the small farm.
Now, with limited space on your farm, you will probably want to do the calculations and choose to grow the crop with highest profit per acre. Choosing the crop that suits you the most will depend on conditions, like on the type of soil and climate you have available. But, for best cash crops per 1 acre, for example, you might consider some fruits like strawberries, raspberries or apples. Although this would probably be a good way for how to make money farming on 1 acre, that would not be fast money, because some time, effort and investment would be needed before your first successful harvest.
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Kind of crops you will manage to grow will first depend on conditions we have mentioned earlier. Most profitable crops per acre in India, for example, would differ much from profitable crops you could grow in, say, Europe or different regions of USA. Or, if not crops per se, limitations concerning growing season would vary quite a lot. For example, an Indian farmer has been growing watermelons throughout the whole year for the last 15 years, earning as much as Rs 22,000,000 (which is around $340,000) a year. Or, another Indian farmer, who had succeeded to grow around 30 kinds of plants on only 2.1 acres of land earning as much as the previous one. Union Ministry of Agriculture has also awarded him for adopting new innovative agricultural techniques provided by Department of Biotechnology, such as organic manure and dripping irrigational system which saves him around RS 400 (or approximately $6,24) a day.
Considering new profitable farming ideas and techniques, one might explore organic farming first which also raises the price of your products. Even though it might sound harder than “usual” farming, you would only need to accept and reconsider some different points of view on farming. The main thing you should have in mind after deciding to do organic farming is: forget about pesticides and harmful chemical components. The important features of organic farming are maintaining long-term soil fertility by providing it with nutrients of natural origin – that is why farm would be a great combination of crops and livestock. Organic crops generally pay off more, and you can check out which are the 15 Most Profitable Organic Crops in America.
Apart from ideas for the most profitable crops for the small farm which you will get here, you might also be interested in profitable small farm ideas. Since we have already researched this topic, you will certainly find some interesting ideas from the Most Profitable Livestocks for Small Farms or 11 Most Profitable Livestocks to Raise in 2017.
From Towergarden we got some great recommendations for how to use the maximum of your space growing easy and profitable crops. Profitable plants and Agricultural Marketing provided some insight into the pricing of some of the most profitable crops to grow on a small farm. We have also researched some experiences of small farmers from resources like Faquiernow or Cheap Vegetable Gardener. You will find some of them on our other list of Most Expensive Specialty Crops in the World as well. Since the crops we have listed here are not comparable in terms of pricing per measure units, profits per area (for example blackberries vs. cilantro) or a number of harvests annually, we had to choose a different method of ranking for our suggestions. That’s why we have chosen the average prices of crops per units they are usually being sold at – pounds, bunches, etc. The more profitable they are, the higher is their place on the list. We have gathered information on this issue mostly from the United States Department of Agriculture and Food Coop.
Some recommendations are to start with a variety of crops at the beginning, so you would see which one suits you the most for growing, and what are the market preferences at the moment. So, try combining the ones you like from our list of the most profitable crops to grow on a small farm:
