MULTI-OBJECTIVE CROP PLANNING FOR GARUFELLA WATERSHED (ASSAM)

Abstract

Land and water are the two most important natural resources for any socio-economic activity. Now a days, the proper utilization of these resources are most important object in the development of Indian agriculture. To meet the demand of growing population, efforts are needed for developing efficient crop planning by optimal use of land and water. The main aim of the present study is to find out a policy for the optimal use of land and water resources resulting in maximizing return satisfying production requirement of the growing population for the year 1990 in the study area. The planning is done to meet the food and nutritional requirement for the projected population of the year 1990, considering the soil, climate, food habits, related socio-economic conditions. Allocation of land and water for five major crops - wheat, paddy, pulses, oil seed and Potato have been determined. The constraints include water and limited land, amount of protein and calorie, minimum and maximum area under various crops etc. Here, two techniques namely Linear programming and Goal programming were used for finding out the optimal allocation of area for various crops as well as optimal allocation of water for various crops. The study has been carried out for a pilot area in Garufella watershed of Goalpara district in Assam State. The area has a gross command area of 10,960 hectare out of which 8420 hectare are culturable. The projected population of this area in the year 1990 is estimated to be 93,400.