Horti-Business Management (2+0)

Factor – Factor Relationship

Factor – Factor Relationship

• While cultivating crops or managing allied enterprises, a farmer has several options to combine some inputs, i.e., to meet the nutrient requirements for crops, the farmer can use a combination of organic and inorganic fertilizers, while controlling pests he can use bio-control and chemical control, combination of animal and machine power, combination of green fodder and concentrates in the case of livestock etc. The farmer has to use the optimum or least cost combination of two or more inputs for producing a given amount of output. The combining of inputs will be possible only if the inputs considered are substitutable. Therefore it is essential to examine the possibilities of substituting one input (X1) for another input (X2) while the output level (Y) is held constant.
• Y=f X1, X2 / X3, X4, ….. Xn). Here Y is a function of X1 and X2 while other inputs are kept constant. This expression shows that the amount of output (Y) depends in a unique way upon the amount of the two inputs X1 and X2 used in the production process along with the other fixed inputs.
Isoquant or Iso-product Curve

• Isoquant is the line connecting all combinations of two inputs that would produce the same level of output. Each point on an isoquants is the maximum output that can be achieved with these input combinations.
• The data on various combinations of nitrogenous and phosphorous nutrients applied to brinjal and the corresponding yield is given in Table 1.
Table 1. Estimated Yields (Qtls) for Various Combinations of Nitrogen and Phosphorus for Brinjal


P/N	40	60	80	100	120	140
40	40.21	43.09	44.74	45.15	44.32	44.02
60	41.87	45.51	47.90	49.06	48.98	48.32
80	40.89	45.28	48.43	50.35	51.02	50.54