Profitability is a key factor affecting farmers’ choices. Ecological organic farming provides many benefits for health, the environment and societal welfare, but is generally percieved to be not as profitable as conventional due to lower yields and high labour costs. However, current research has demonstrated that farm profitability on actively-managed organic farms can match or exceed that of conventional. In organic systems, the cost savings from not purchasing as many external inputs and the higher market value of organic produce can often compensate for the lower yield.

This factsheet introduces the ways in which organic farmers can be profitable, and highlights some of the major factors from the experiences of the research related to profitability, namely: labour, organic inputs, best practices and market access. The information is based on long-term experiments and on-farm research conducted in the scope of three projects across different countries in Africa, as well as Bolivia and India. Further products in the series, e.g., posters, videos and more, are linked in the 'Further information' section on the last page of this factsheet.