Sunday, 9 December 2012

Agriculture notes prepared by IAS Topper for all agriculture based competitive exams-Agricutural Economics-Important principles of decision making in farm management


Important principles of decision making in farm management
p Law of equimarginal returns
“Allocation of limited resources to optimum choice of enterprises which give maximum marginal returns i.e. not only the maximum average return, but also maximum marginal return”. It means that the limited resources like land, labour, capital etc. are allocated in such a manner that he cannot change the use of single unit without reducing the income.
p Opportunity cost
“The value of next best alternative foregone” or “The value of one enterprise sacrificed is the cost of producing another enterprise. It deals with resource allocation where use of scarce resources for a production of a particular product always means that next best alternative to use these resources is left out.
“Optimum choice of enterprises depend upon
law of equimarginal return and opportunity cost”

p Principle of substitution
To understand this concept, let us analyze the following
Condition: Assume that the level of output from a farm is fixed
Required: What is the least cost combination of resources to get that fixed level of out put from a farm
Choice:    There are always many alternatives for inputs/farm practices; we have to exercise our discretion to choose the best possible combination, which is also the least cost combination
How to know what is the least cost combinations?
We have to work out two important ratios
1.      Marginal rate of substitution
No. of units of replaced resources
MRS =
No. of units of added resources

Price of units of added resources
Price ration (PR)     =
Rice of units of replaced resources
The point at which MRS = PR, that is the least cost combination for any resource. However three situations can arise when we look at these tow ratios.
a). If MRS>PR, then a least cost point can be attained by increasing the added resources.
b). If MRS<PR, then a least cost point can be attained by increasing replaced resources
c). MRS=PR is the exact point of least cost combination

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