USING FUZZY GOAL PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUE IN OPTIMAL CROPPING PATTERN

Determination of optimal cropping pattern is essential for arid and semiarid regions. Lorestan province is located in the west part of Iran with mean annual precipitation from 50 to 1000 mm and in most parts of this province water resources for agriculture are deficit. Khoramabad region with semi-arid climate is located in Lorestan province with mean annual rainfall of 373 mm. The purpose of this paper is to handle fuzzy goal programming model (FGP) for optimal allocation of agricultural acreage and annual program offers for variety of products. This approach not only increases the applicability of goal programming in real world situations but also provides useful insight about the solution. In the model formulation of the problem, production and net profit achievement, and man power, machine-hour, seed, fertilizers and pesticides requirement goals from the farm are fuzzily described. The output of our study may become a useful analytical tool for agricultural managers, who are using traditional LP and GP methods for recommendations to the farmer on optimal land allocation for different crops in the planning process.