Africa Estate Farm Tools

Crop loan: how much must I borrow, and what is left?

How much you would borrow for a crop, month by month, and what is left after the harvest money repays it. The crop, hectares and cost lines are the crop budget's (Grain SA 2026/27, with your own figures over them). Choose when each cost is paid, what the loan pays, your own contribution, VAT, the rate and the fees: interest runs on the actual balance until the harvest money comes in. A weak and a good season show the risk.

1. Your crop and hectares

Grain SA: 6.20 t/ha.
Grain SA: R 3 905.75/t. Your buyer's price wins.

The cost lines are the crop budget's: R 18 600 a hectare (Grain SA). Change them in the crop budget; this link carries them both ways.

2. The loan

Empty uses prime, 10.75% from 2026-09-25: a reference, not your lender's rate. Enter the rate your lender quotes.
Pays the first costs; the rest is drawn from the loan.
Assumed: costs from Oct, harvest money in Jul. Use your own months.
Grain SA does not say; assumed without VAT, so VAT is added. Diesel and petrol are zero-rated (SARS): no VAT on fuel.
Advanced: fees, VAT timing and when each cost is paid

No fee is assumed: enter your lender's fees. Untick a cost your loan will not pay; you pay it yourself.

3. A weak and a good season

Empty: 20% below expected.
Empty: 10% above expected.

Hypothetical seasons, not forecasts. The price stays your farm-gate price unless you change it in the share link.

Open this crop in the crop budgetWork out break-evenAsk Africa EstateRead: Land Bank agricultural finance
Choose what goes along to the other crop tools

What you untick starts from Grain SA's figures in the other tool. Nothing personal goes along: farm figures only.

What this does not tell you

  • This is an estimate of the financing need, not a credit offer or an approval. Your lender decides the amount, the rate, the fees and the terms.
  • No lender's requirements are assumed. The rate is prime as a reference until you enter your lender's; no fee is assumed until you enter it.
  • The months and the weak and good seasons are assumptions you can change. Grain SA does not say when costs are paid or whether its figures include VAT; the VAT rules (fuel zero-rated, zero-rated farming inputs with SARS authorisation, two- or six-monthly periods) come from SARS, and your VAT practitioner confirms your case.
  • Grain SA's own "interest on production credit" line is left out: this works out the interest on your own balance instead.
  • Nothing you enter is uploaded or kept by us; the share link carries farm figures only. Do not send documents through this page.

Sources

Estimate, not advice. Confirm every figure with your bank, attorney and tax practitioner before a decision.