Variations in individual fann characteristics and behavior of farm operators are taken into account in a procedure for estimating production potentials of agricultural areas. The procedure combines sampling and programming techniques. It differs from the purely synthetic approach, or the representative firm approach, in that the programmed or budgeted results are adjusted for changes in individual farm situations on the basis of the socioeconomic characteristics of individual farmers and their resource base. Aggregate output is shown by a case study to be influenced by variables other than those normally included in budgeted linear progranlming models.