Keywords
Profit optimization
Intercropping
Coconut-cacao production
Abstract
Linear programming (LP) has various applications relevant to agriculture aspects such as optimization and simulation. Profit from agricultural production should be maximized due to the limited resources such as certain land areas available for planting, budget for production, and quantity of farm outputs. Intercropping is one way of utilizing land by planting a combination of crops that addresses productivity and environmental concerns. Intercrop farming of coconut and cacao in the Philippines initiates better economic benefits for the farmers. Since profit drives the venture’s survival, this study determined the maximum profit along with the optimum number of coconut and cacao trees to be planted by formulating a linear programming model for establishing cost parameters and Microsoft Excel Software for data simulation. Using the data from the Department of Agriculture and up-to-date parameter costs, one hectare intercropping of 135 coconut trees and 500 cacao trees generates an annual average profit of Php 61,940.00. The comparison of profits from monocropping and the optimum solution was performed yielding more than Php 30,000.00 higher profit for intercropping. Lastly, the effect of the change in input cost to optimum profit has been evaluated concluding with a decrease in profit for a unit increase of seedlings and an increase in profit for fertilizer cost not exceeding Php 10,000.00. The developed LP model was designed for the demonstration of determining the most benefits from a 1-hectare intercrop land and can be utilized by doing interpolation to the land size and subjecting to PIC for the values of the inputs.
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