Potential of mathematical programming for the analysis of yield gaps in semi-arid tropical agriculture

This paper proposes and demonstrates the use of a whole-farm modeling approach based on mathematical programming to partition the gap between potential and actual yield at the farm level attributable to socioeconomic factors in rainfed agriculture. The first section of the paper deals with the existence of yield gaps, expressed in various ways, in different crop production activities in India"s Akola district. It also tries to explain them in terms of input gaps. In the second section, the proposed models and concepts are discussed. The third section demonstrates the use of a mathematical programming technique in breaking yield gap into components by using actual input-output data and by considering existing resource and other constraint levels. Findings show that lack of capital is the single most importance cause of yield gap, followed by farmers" lack of technical efficiency. The need to improve extension services and farmer management skills, increase the availability of credit, and conduct research on labor-using and capital-saving technologies is noted.