Optimization of farming system under marginal farm households in Western Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh

The present study was conducted during the year 2013–14 in Western Plain Zone of Uttar Pradesh to know the Economic potential of existing farming system under Marginal farm household's category. Multistage stratified random sampling design was used to collect the data from; a sample of93 respondents was selected on the basis of probability proportion to size of holdings. In the study area, identified farming systems aresugarcane-based, livestock basedand cereal-based farming systems. About 53 percent farmersfollowed livestock based farming system in which about 22 percent (21) farm households were practisizing livestock +Sugarcane + cereal + fodder farming system. The economics of identified systems shows that the total cost, gross return and net return were to be found Rs. 436173.5, Rs. 602034.24 and Rs. 165860.77 respectively. LP model was used to for the optimization of farm. In the existing situation on an average 3 livestock (cow & buffalo) was rearing on every farm. The analysis has shown that livestock components contributed a larger proportion (67.92 per cent) of the total income on the marginal farms than crop-based farming systems, reflecting the significance of livestock in augmenting the income of the households.