Resource Allocation In Traditional Agriculture: A Case Study Of West Bengal In The Mid-Fifties

An era has come when the most ancient industry, namely, agriculture is beginning to be transformed in the underdeveloped countries of the world. Changes are taking different directions in different places with different rates of growth. However, the "traditional agriculture" characterized by age old techniques of production is not a myth of the past. There are vast agricultural areas, where even though modernization has started, the rate of growth of agriculture is not fast enough to wipe away some of the basic characteristics of "traditional agriculture." The present study is an exploration of resource allocation in traditional agriculture and employs linear programming techniques to answer the following questions: (1) How far do we find conformity between actual resource allocation and optimal resource allocation given the constraints under which the traditional agriculture is operating at a particular point of time? (2) Which inputs act a limiting factors under the existing resource availabilities? (3) How fully are all resources presently engaged in farming activities or remaining on farm utilized, assuming that the farms are trying to maximize return to fixed resources, through crop production activities? (4) What is the time distribution of the surplus resources? Is it essentially seasonal or permanent in nature? (5) Whether part of the resources presently engaged in farming activities can be removed without affecting the level of agricultural production? The focus of attention of the present model is primarily on the crop production activities though some other activities have been included in the model, depending on their impact on crop production activities within a single production period. The purpose in view is to examine the nature of resource allocation and resource utilization for a single production period, assuming that crop production is the main activity of the farms and resources currently available for such activities are essentially constant.