Skip to content
RIMAIAgribusiness SchoolMy land

Module 12

The Capstone: a costed plan on your Major.

What to farm, on how many hectares, who will buy it, what it costs to get the product there, who works it, how it is financed and what it returns. The course ends with a business you can start.

Download the ToolkitCertify the planRead the rubric
A venture plan with a pegged land map on the table in front of a bank

How the plan comes together

The plan is built in T-CAP-01 Venture Plan Builder, which pulls the results of your Core Course and Major calculators onto one page.

The Toolkit opens with a worked example of two hectares in Chegutu, Zimbabwe, in US dollars. Replace every yellow cell with your own figures. A plan that still carries the example figures is not your plan, and it will not certify.

Two hectares measured out, with the four numbers that make land a business assetTwo hectares, measured as a business assetHectare 1100 m x 100 mHectare 210,000 m²100 m100 m100 mLease value a yearthe return to beatSale valuethe capital tied upHolding costfencing, rates, upkeepTenure documentwhat a bank lends on1 hectare = 10,000 square metres. Two hectares is a 200 m x 100 m block.
1Set your land and Major
Open the Toolkit, go to Settings and enter your country, hectares, Major, venture name and location. Every calculator reads from there.
2Work the Core Course calculators
Fill T-C-01 Land Use Planner through T-C-08 People and Labour Cost with your own figures. They are chained: start-up capital feeds the loan, the loan feeds the cash flow, both feed break-even.
3Work your Major calculators
Use the calculators your Major names, starting with its Enterprise Budget, to build the main enterprise on your hectares.
4Plan your people and community
In T-C-08, set out every role, its pay and months, who is trained from the community, and what the venture buys and contributes locally.
5Answer the five plan questions
In T-CAP-01, write who buys at what price and on what terms, what your land right proves to a lender, where the money comes from, the single biggest risk with your answer to it, and who works on the venture and how the community benefits.
6Pass all six checks
T-CAP-01 runs six readiness checks. When it reads 6 of 6 and Ready to submit for certification, the plan can be assessed.

What the plan shows a lender

The numbers

  • Land use: total gross margin per year
  • Land use: value if leased out instead
  • Start-up capital and the funding gap
  • Monthly loan repayment and total interest
  • Lowest cash balance in year one
  • Farm-gate price from your best buyer
  • Break-even volume
  • Expected cost of risk per year
  • Gross margin with prices down 20% and costs up 20%
  • Main enterprise gross margin per unit
  • Jobs created and the share held locally
  • Total people cost and money reaching the community

The six readiness checks

  • Land plan earns more than leasing the land out
  • Hectares are not over-allocated
  • Cash stays positive through year one
  • Expected yield is above break-even yield
  • The plan survives the stress test
  • Main enterprise gross margin is positive

The plan reads Ready to submit for certification only at 6 of 6.

Plan reads 6 of 6?

Submit it with your certification code and become a RIMAI Certified Agribusiness Professional.

Submit your planRead the rubric

After the plan

Turn it into a funder document

Moeletsi Africa writes your T-CAP-01 results up as a full business plan for a bank, a development funder or an investor.

Take this step

Use your certificate number

Your certificate number is recognised on Musika, Mashofe.com, Moeletsi Africa and Chinyama.com.

What it unlocks