Predicting the Profitability of Agricultural Enterprises Using Area-related Ratios

: This study investigates the predictive ability of financial and area-related ratios in forecasting future asset profitability. The predictive modelling was conducted using the Random Forest algorithm. The analysis encompassed both conventional financial ratios and their modified counterparts. Specifically, the following indicators were examined: profit-to-assets ratio, profit per hectare, sales-to-assets ratio, sales per hectare, debt-to-assets ratio, debt per hectare, fixed asset ratio, assets per hectare, and labour productivity. Empirical results indicate that profitability ratios, particularly the profit-to-assets ratio, exhibit strong predictive performance. Furthermore, area-related variants—such as profit per hectare and debt per hectare—demonstrated enhanced accuracy in certain scenarios. Nonetheless, the practical applicability of these area-related indicators is constrained by challenges related to data availability and consistency.