MULTI-OBJECTIVE CROP PLANNING FOR PENCH IRRIGATION PROJECT, MAHARASHTRA

Abstract

The greatest advance in management science has occured in its implementation to solve real-world decision problems. Optimal allocation of land and water to obtain optimal cropping pattern is al so a real-world decision problem. With a view to urgent need for increasing agricultural production in the country to feed the growing population, attempts must be made to plan and implement the optimal use of land and water in such a way that maximum production per unit of water is obtained by proper selection of crops and by optimal number of irrigation. With this view to obtain best possible optimal cropping pattern for the year 1990 and 2000 for 'Pench Irrigation Project, Nagpur, Maharashtra; considering multiple goals i.e., maximization of net returns, nutritional value and production and constraints of land and water, Goal programming which is special extension of linear programming optimization technique was used as a real-world decision problems (involving multiple conflicting objectives) solving technique. The work carried under the present study is that the optimal crop pattern is obtained with the help of goal programming model under given set of constraints and by comparing the results of the two models formulated, one by considering maximum yield and another, by making allowance for yield at different levels of irrigation , both including yield at zero irrigation. To see the trade off between different goals, prio- rities of net return and nutritional value (calorie and protein) were exchanged for both the models, keeping priority of production require-ment at third level.