Crop income optimization analysis under crop diversification scenarios in a village near Roorkee; District Haridwar, India

Abstract

The agricultural resources are limited while the demand of agricultural products keeps on increasing along with population. Optimum productivity with limited land will only be a quick solution which farmers can adopt easily and fill the gap. This paper depicts different crop production scenarios as a way out to agricultural net benefit optimization. The study considered five main cropping scenarios, viz. LP1, LP2…LP5 as possible plans which were carried out for each of the three seasons; Kharif, Rabi and Zaid. The study reveals that, for getting optimum net return from available land and water resources in Kharif season farmers need to grow 280 ha of sugarcane, 69 ha of rice, 10 ha of maize, 50ha of chili, 130 ha of floriculture and 130 ha of folder (Jowar) which can give net return of Rs. 46,682,310. It was observed that the proposed LP model is appropriate for finding the optimal land allocation to the major food crops in Kharif season. Sensitivity analysis showed that crop water requirement is the most sensitive parameter and its changes have the highest effect on the amount of net return in the study area. Farmers can get higher optimum net return in Kharif season by making some slightly adjustment in the existing cropping pattern and adopting some in-situ water saving techniques.