Toll Free 1800 572 9282 
mailus@wbcsmadeeasy.in
Farm Planning – Agriculture Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
খামার পরিকল্পনা – কৃষি নোট – WBCS পরীক্ষা।
Farm planning is a decision making process in the farm business, which involves organization and management of limited resources to realize the specified goals continuously. Farm planning involves selecting the most profitable course of action from among all possible alternatives.Continue Reading Farm Planning – Agriculture Notes – For W.B.C.S. Examination.
i) Objectives of Farm Planning
The ultimate objective of farm planning is the improvement in the standard of living of the farmer and immediate goal is to maximize the net incomes of the farmer through improved resource use planning. In short, the main objective is to maximize the annual net income sustained over a long period of time. The farm planning helps the cultivator in the following ways:
a) It helps him examine carefully his existing resource situation and past experiences as a basis for deciding which of the new alternative enterprises and methods fit his situation in the best way.
b) It helps him identify the various supply needs for the existing and improved plans.
c) It helps him find out the credit needs, if any, of the new plan.
d) It gives an idea of the expected income after repayment of loans, meeting out the expenditure on production, marketing, consumption, etc.
e) A properly thought of a farm plan might provide cash incomes at points of time when they may be most needed at the farm.
A farm plan is a programme of total farm activities of a farmer drawn out in advance. An optimum farm plan will satisfy all the resource constraints at the farm level and yield the maximum profit.
ii) Characteristics of a Good Farm Plan
A good farm plan generally should have the following characteristics:
a) An element of flexibility in a farm plan is essential to account for changes in the environment around the farm.
b) A farm plan should maximize the resource use efficiency at the farm.
c) It should provide for the attainment of the objectives of profit maximization through optimum resource use and balanced combination of farm enterprises.
d) Risk and uncertainty can be accounted for in a good farm plan.
e) The plan helps in timely acquisition and repayment of farm credit.
iii) Components of Farm Planning: Any systematic farm planning necessarily has the following five components:
a) Statement of the objective function: Many farmers aim at profit maximization. However, some farmers do not go all out to maximize their profits, but have objectives like cereal requirements for the family and fodder needs for the livestock.
b) Inventory of scarce resources and constraints
1) Land: Location, topography, soil type, fertility, drainage, irrigation systems and so on affect enterprises in many ways and hence, it is useful to divide all the land on a farm into different enterprises.
2) Labour: On subsistence farms, all labour is supplied by the farmer and his family. Thus, it is important to record the number of workers – male, female and children – and the type of manual work each is prepared is undertake. However, in commercial farms, hired labour constitutes a major component of costs and thereby inviting more attention in the planning process.
3) Capital: Whether fixed, like buildings and machines, or circulating, like cash in hand or in the bank, capital acts as a very powerful constraint.
4) Personal: Farmers’ past experience, attitude towards risks and uncertainties and personal likes and dislikes influence the choice of enterprise.
5) Institutional: Market often serves as a constraint for the production of vegetables, poultry, milk, etc. Even if the location of the farm is suitable for a particular crop (commodity), a contract may still have to be obtained. E.g. Sugarcane growing near the sugar mills. Similarly, though many parts of Himachal Pradesh are suitable for poppy cultivation, the government has banned its cultivation.
6) Rotations: Maximum permissible area under a particular crop in a given season or minimum area constraints imposed on the acre under some crops like legumes would serve in maintaining soil fertility and help controlling pest and diseases.
3) Alternative Choices: Alternative choices in planning refer to the various enterprises, crops and livestock, which can be considered for attaining the stated objectives. There are alternate ways to use the scarce farm resources. There may be more than one ways to produce the same enterprise. A comprehensive list of different alternative enterprises can be prepared.
4) Input Output Co-efficients: The requirements of each of the several scarce resources and the financial returns per unit of each enterprise or activity need to be considered here. The precision in planning depends more on accurate input-output data than on the technique of planning.
5) Planning Technique: With a proper understanding of the planning environment and use of precise input-output data along with true and realistic constraints, sophisticated techniques give better results. However, common sense in the planning process could lead to fairly good results.
Some of the farm planning techniques are as listed below:
1. Budgeting.
2. Linear Programming.
Budgeting is most informal of all the planning techniques and the level of sophistication gradually increases as we move from budgeting to linear programming.
iv) Steps in Farm Planning: The various steps involved in planning are discussed below:
a) Planning: This includes the identification and definition of the problem, collection of information, identifying alternative solutions and analyzing each alternative. Planning is the basic management function as it means deciding on a course of action, procedure or policy. The control function is a source of new information, as the results of the initial plan become known.
b) Implementation: Once the planning process is completed, the best alternative must be selected and action should be taken to place the plan into operation. This requires the acquisition and organization of necessary land, labour, capital and other inputs. An important part of the implementation function is the financing of the necessary resources.
c) Control: This provides for observing the results of the implemented plan to see if the specified goals and objectives are being met. Many things can cause a plan to go “off its track”. Price and other changes, which occur after the implementation of the plan, can cause the actual results to deviate from the expected. Control requires a system for making regular checks on the plan and monitoring progress and results as measured against the established goals.
Please subscribe here to get all future updates on this post/page/category/website
