Calculate number farmers "close" to make a profit

[najon]

I have a math question that I am struggling with:Background: In my model, I have 50 farmers who plant and sell cotton. Each farmer while running their farm have costs (operations, debt, labor etc...​) and they generate revenues from selling cotton. All farmers have different land size, therefore the amount of cotton harvested and sold is different for all.

Profitable farmers are considered to be the ones with: revenues (sales) - costs >0
​NON-Profitable farmers are considered to be the ones with: ​revenues (sales) - costs <=0question:

​Now, I want to calculate the number of non-profitable farmers who are "close" to make a profit.Let say, I have 30 profitable farmers and 20 non-profitable farmers. Among the 20 non-profitable farmers, how many are "close" to make profit.by close, I mean, how many of them make only a 10% (or less) loss?

​for example, if farmer A profit calculation is: 500-550 = -$50
then, he's an non-profitable farmer. he's missing $50 to reach the breakeven point. how do I calculate the percentage of his loss? is he within 10% or less to reach breakeven?

thanks for your help

 

[Aaron Bex]

The answer to your question depends on the total sales (revenues) of the 50 farmers. You will need to calculate the total sales of the 50 farmers and then use that number to calculate the percentage of loss for each non-profitable farmer. For example, if the total sales of the 50 farmers is $10,000, then you can calculate the percentage of loss for Farmer A by taking 500/10,000 = 0.05 = 5%. If the percentage of loss is 10% or less, then Farmer A is considered to be "close" to making a profit.