Capital Requirement For Optimization Of Resource Use On Marginal And Small Farms In Old Alluvial Zone Of West Bengal

Estimation of capital requirement for modernisation of Indian farms of different sizes over different agro-climatic zones in India is an important and long felt need. The present paper has made an effort. to *estimate capital requirements while optimizin2 the resource use on marginal and small farms in the old alluvitl zone of West Bengal. The district 61-Burchyan shON•ying..the minimum divergence between the districts's .crdp yield' index 'and. average (i.e. 100) in absolute term was selected for the' stu4. A' total of 150 farm households (small and marginal) formed the primary units,of this study. , . Linear programming approach was applied considering that it might handle best the problem of estimation of,capi.tal requirement, .among all other , approaches. The return over :variable cost (ROVC), aenerated, from the, optimum •.% plans was found to be increased with the. change .in the :level of te•chnology in. the order of existing to progressive, and to, recommended technology. Obvioiisly capital requirenient and RQVC.inc.reased increi.ise in size - of farMS. It was also 'noticed that the capital requirement for optimum plan • prepared considering progressive " farrners'f•technold-a)'..Was. Comparatively ' lower than those in the plans prepared considering both existing tecimoloay and reconunended teclmology in the study area. It was suggested that those optimal plan(s) required less capital and generated more, ROV,C in.other ‘‘ oats, having higher ratio between ROVC, and capital requirement) might be chosen for implementation.