Protected cultivation can produce multiple crop cycles per year with far higher yield per square foot than open-field farming, but the upfront investment needs to be recovered before it becomes truly profitable. This calculator projects your annual profit and, from that, calculates how many years it will take to pay back your construction investment.
Annual Revenue = Growing Area × Yield per sq ft per Cycle × Cycles per Year × Selling Price. Annual Profit = Annual Revenue − Annual Operating Cost. Payback Period (years) = Initial Investment ÷ Annual Profit.
| Crop | Yield per sq ft per Cycle | Cycles per Year |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato | 4-6 kg | 1.5-2 |
| Cucumber | 5-8 kg | 2-3 |
| Bell pepper | 3-4 kg | 1.5 |
| Leafy greens | 1-2 kg | 4-6 |
For a 3,000 sq ft greenhouse growing tomatoes, yielding 5 kg/sq ft per cycle at 1.5 cycles/year, selling at PKR 90/kg: Annual revenue = 3,000 × 5 × 1.5 × 90 = PKR 2.03 million. Against annual operating costs of roughly PKR 900,000 (labor, inputs, utilities), annual profit is about PKR 1.13 million. If construction cost PKR 1.2 million, payback period ≈ 1.1 years — a strong indicator that greenhouse tomato production justifies its upfront cost in most local markets.
Well-managed greenhouses growing high-value crops like tomatoes or cucumbers typically pay back construction cost in 1-3 years. Structures growing lower-value or single-cycle crops can take 4-6 years, which is worth checking before investing in expensive covering or climate control.
Leafy greens and herbs cycle fastest (4-6 crops per year) and reach payback quickly despite lower per-kg prices, because turnover compounds revenue faster. High-value fruiting crops like tomatoes earn more per cycle but take longer per crop, balancing out to a similar overall ROI timeline in many markets.
Significantly — one of the biggest advantages of greenhouse production is extending harvest into off-season windows when open-field supply is low and prices are 30-60% higher, which is often what makes the investment pay back faster than in-season field yields alone would suggest.
Yes — greenhouse crops like tomatoes and cucumbers need more intensive labor (pruning, trellising, pollination assistance) than open-field growing, so operating cost estimates should reflect this higher labor intensity rather than using open-field labor assumptions.