| The two major cereal crops rice and wheat grown in the Punjab Rice areas are facing low net returns due to the increased input cost. With the gradual removal of input subsidies the present dominant rotation of Rice-Wheat is no longer profitable. The country is also facing severe balance of payment problems due to increased oilseeds imports. This calls for an investigation of constraints to the production of rice and other minor crops. The need for identifying alternative profitable crop technologies is also felt. The specific objectives of this study were (1) to study resource productivity in the rice based farming system in Gujranwala, Sialkot and Sheikhupura districts of Punjab. A particular objective is to provide a farmers view of the Kharif work situation; (2) to identify technical and socioeconomic factors which constrain increases in production of rice and competing crops in the Kharif season in the three districts; (3) to analyze through linear programming models the economic implications of increasing multiple cropping intensities with new crops such as sunflower and early maturing mungbean and changes in product price policies; and (4) to draw implications from the study for research, extension and government policy.;The results show that farmers are less concerned with the technical constraints as perceived by researchers but face serious socioeconomic problems. Problems with canal water, public tubewells, impurity of inputs, high input costs etc were identified to be the major socioeconomic constraints. The Punjab farmer has started to adjust to cost increases by reducing area allocated to rice. The programming exercise revealed that sunflower and mungbean can easily be incorporated in the rice based system. Sunflower will compete with wheat and rice. The main limiting factors for these crops are seed, assured procurement, extension demonstrations. The new rice variety PK-258 shows promise. Given the government policy to discourage IRRI by price reductions we may see a gradual shift towards newer crops.;In 1984, 240 farmers were surveyed in 15 villages in districts Gujranwala, Sheikhupura and Sialkot. A multistage sampling approach was used to select the respondents. The study was restricted to the heavy well drained soils to explore crop substitution. Two representative farm models were constructed for small farms to analyze cropping patterns in the rice areas. |
