Operational Research: Lessons In Resolving The Problems Of Development

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: Operational Research (OR) is a scientific method for problem solving. OR has been applied to the problems of agriculture, food production and the related fields in the developed economics. Such applications in the case of developing economics have been scarce. Recently a few macro-models of development of rural sector are being reported but most of the existing models address the standard problems like cropping pattern, water management and maximisation of income through commercial agriculture. Very few problem formulations address the long- term effects of development strategies.

’Wisdom’ can be defined as the ability to sacrifice immediate short-term gains for larger long-term gains. The existing approaches and many of the models do not display wisdom but concern themselves with short-term maximisation of return only. There is a need to bring ’wisdom’ in model formulation. The existing models seldom capture the nature of conflict inherent in devising strategies for agriculture and rural development. Some of the conflicts are:

* Extensive versus Intensive use of scarce resources (water, fertiliser, pesticides).

* Maximisation of the yields over a longer period as opposed to short period (long term sustainability).

* Consideration of distributional effects along with growth and resolving the conflict between growth and distribution (both sectoral and spatial).

Many critical aspects have to be dealt with while formulating an effective OR Strategy. First, an attempt to maximise the spread of benefit from a given level of resources since certain resources are scarce. This may lead to sacrifice of productive efficiency at the macro level. Desirable degree of sacrifice of productive efficiency for obtaining better effects on distribution is a matter of policy choice. Next, the short-term maximisation should not lead to problems in the long term. Thus in irrigated areas maximisation of production through high yielding variety, chemical fertilisers and pesticides might have created problems of sustainability.