Optimal Allocation of Resources in Smallholder Agriculture by Means of Goal Programming: Application in North Bihar

This paper presents a goal programming (GP) approach for optimal crop combination under limited land resource for smallholder farmers of north Bihar. The main objective of this paper is to developed, apply and evaluate goal programming model that aims at achieving multiple goals of the smallholders. Three basic goals of the smallholders considered in the study were: providing food for the family throughout the year, accumulating monetary income and ensuring minimum use of hired labour (by efficient utilization of family labour). Primary data were collected, during the 2010 -farming season, from two hundred and sixty smallholder farmers who were selected through multi-stage sampling technique from north Bihar of India. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the smallholders. More specifically, weighted and lexicographic goal programming techniques were employed to determine optimal crop combination .Twenty five crop combinations were simultaneously entered into WGP and LGP model. Out of which seven crop combinations were found to be optimal one as they were satisfying all the above mentioned goals of the smallholders. These crop combinations were Wheat/Potato, Wheat/maize/Potato, Wheat/Pulses/Potato, Wheat/Maize/Pulses/Potato, Wheat/Maize/Pulses/Tilhan, maize/Pulses/Potato, Maize/Potato/Tilhan.