Crop Planning in Synchronized Crop-Demand Scenarios: A Biobjective Optimization Formulation

Abstract

Crop planning problems have been extensively studied from different perspectives (profit maximization, optimizing available water use, sustainability, etc.). In this paper, a new approach is proposed that considers new forms of customer-producer relationship, involving long-term cooperation agreements where the product volumes are agreed, and the demand is guaranteed in advance. In this context, typical of manufacturing production systems, crop planning must guarantee a given production level on specific dates, thus becoming deterministic in nature. In that context, this paper introduces a lexicographic biobjective optimization approach that, in addition to cost minimization, aims at minimizing the risk of not meeting the agreed demands. The latter is done by maximizing the geographic dispersion of the crops so that weather risk is mitigated. A number of experiments have been carried out to test the proposed approach, showing the high complexity of the solution and opening the door to new solution procedures for a problem that results from interest given to the new type of relationships in the food logistics chain.