CropManagement

Java OOP revision project based on Question 7 of NSC Information Technology paper 2025. The code focuses mainly on Q7.8, where an array class stores Farm objects and determines which farm is the most expensive to operate.

What This Project Demonstrates

• Encapsulation with private fields
• Accessor and mutator methods
• Constructors
• Composition: a Farm object contains two Crop objects
• Object arrays
• A corrected findMostExpensive() method based on the Q7.8 algorithm

Project Structure

CropManagement/
+-- pom.xml
+-- README.md
+-- src/
    +-- main/
        +-- java/
            +-- com/
                +-- mycompany/
                    +-- cropmanagement/
                        +-- Crop.java
                        +-- Farm.java
                        +-- FarmArray.java
                        +-- CropManagement.java

Classes

Crop.java

Represents one crop. It stores the crop name, seed cost, number of seed packs bought, and calculates the total cost of growing that crop.

Farm.java

Represents one farm. Each farm has a name, area, dam status, and two crops. It calculates the total cost of growing both crops.

FarmArray.java

Stores an array of Farm objects. This is the main class linked to Q7.8. It includes the sample farm data and the corrected findMostExpensive() method.

CropManagement.java

The main class. Run this file to test the program.

Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/delan75/CropManagement.git
cd CropManagement

Run in NetBeans

1. Open NetBeans.
2. Select File > Open Project.
3. Choose the cloned CropManagement folder.
4. Wait for NetBeans to load the Maven project.
5. Open src/main/java/com/mycompany/cropmanagement/CropManagement.java.
6. Right-click the file and select Run File, or click the green Run button.

Run in Another IDE

This is a standard Maven Java project, so it can also be opened in IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, or VS Code.

1. Open the cloned CropManagement folder in your IDE.
2. Make sure the project SDK/JDK is set to Java 8 or later.
3. Run the main method in CropManagement.java.

Run from the Command Line

If Maven is installed:

mvn compile
mvn exec:java

If Maven is not installed, compile and run manually:

javac -d target/classes src/main/java/com/mycompany/cropmanagement/*.java
java -cp target/classes com.mycompany.cropmanagement.CropManagement

Expected Output

The program prints the farm details and then displays:

Most expensive farm: Moonshine Farm
Most expensive cost: R409680.00

Teaching Note

In Q7.8, the incorrect algorithm assigns the values the wrong way around:

farmCost <- biggestCost

The corrected logic should update biggestCost when a larger farmCost is found:

biggestCost <- farmCost

In the code, this correction is implemented in FarmArray.findMostExpensive().

Also note: the question paper data lists Cabbage as 20000 packets, but the supplied calculation 362 850,00 only matches 30000 packets. This project uses 30000 so that the code matches the calculation and expected Q7.8 trace result.