Frame a checkable economic decision

The manager now has an enterprise card, a reconciled quantity record, and price offers expressed on a common basis. What decision are these data meant to support? “Improve farm profitability” supplies neither alternatives nor a time horizon nor a resource constraint. A useful question is: “How should the available hectare be divided between tomatoes and cucumbers next season if water and harvest-week labor are limited?” That question points to the needed information: comparable crop margins, water requirements, peak labor days and sale feasibility. The crop with the highest margin per hectare may be impossible if critical resources are unavailable when needed.

First identify the **decision and its owner**. A specialist can prepare the comparison and check the calculations. Changing land use or entering a sales contract may still require the farm or cooperative's approval. A sound worksheet does not grant authority. List genuinely feasible alternatives: retain the current split, transfer half a hectare, or trial a small plot. An option that requires unavailable irrigation should not appear alongside feasible options without a condition. State the decision horizon. A one-season budget does not prove permanent superiority for a crop that affects rotation, soil or later commitments.

Name the **limiting resource** and any non-negotiable ceiling. Land caps area, water caps irrigation and seasonal labor caps harvesting capacity. Pre-harvest cash may be the binding limit even when land is plentiful. Compare more than one measure where the decision calls for it: margin per hectare, contribution per unit of scarce water, peak labor days and the timing of cash. Avoid adding unlike measures into an arbitrary score. First rule out options that breach a hard limit; then explain the trade-offs among those that remain. If reliable water-use or agronomic data are absent, seek technical input rather than presenting a financial calculation as agronomic advice.

Write a one-page decision brief with the question, alternatives, enterprise boundary and units, evidence and assumptions for material inputs, constraints, comparative calculation, reversal conditions, conditional recommendation, approval owner and review date. “Raise income” is a goal, “grow cucumbers” is an idea, and “allocate half a hectare after confirming peak water and an acceptable sale price” is an actionable decision. A brief lets the manager see where observations end and assumptions begin. It also gives the team a basis for checking the choice against actual results after the season instead of relying on memory.