Keywords
Agroforestry; agroecology; ecological interactions; spatial and temporal crop allocation problem; exact discrete optimization methods
Location
Session B2: Advances in Agricultural Modelling
Start Date
11-7-2016 2:30 PM
End Date
11-7-2016 2:50 PM
Abstract
Mixed fruit-vegetable cropping systems (MFVCS) are a promising way of ensuring environmentally sustainable agricultural production systems in response to the challenge of being able to fulfill local market requirements. Indeed, they combine productions and they also make a better use of biodiversity. These agroforestry systems are based on a complex set of interactions modifying the utilization of light, water and nutrients. Thus, designing such a system must optimize the use of these resources, by maximizing positive interactions (facilitation) and minimizing negative ones (competition). To attain these objectives, the system's design has to include the spatial and temporal dimensions of these interactions, taking into account the evolution of above- and belowground interactions over a time horizon. However, a considerable amount of research has been conducted, on the one hand, to prove the interest of agroforestry, and on the other hand to propose models supporting cropping plan and crop rotation decisions, but to our knowledge, no model supports the spatial and temporal allocation of both vegetable crops and trees in agroforestry systems. Therefore, we initially built a first MFVCS prototype using the Weighted Constraint Satisfaction framework but the resolution was limited to small scale systems. In this paper, we explore larger MFVCS models using a solver based on Integer Quadratic Programming. The limits of exact methods in solving the MFVCS problem are presented showing the need for approximation methods able to solve a large scale system with solutions of good quality in reasonable time, which could be used in interactive design with farmers and advisers.
Included in
Civil Engineering Commons, Data Storage Systems Commons, Environmental Engineering Commons, Hydraulic Engineering Commons, Other Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons
Designing mixed fruit-vegetable cropping systems by integer quadratic programming
Session B2: Advances in Agricultural Modelling
Mixed fruit-vegetable cropping systems (MFVCS) are a promising way of ensuring environmentally sustainable agricultural production systems in response to the challenge of being able to fulfill local market requirements. Indeed, they combine productions and they also make a better use of biodiversity. These agroforestry systems are based on a complex set of interactions modifying the utilization of light, water and nutrients. Thus, designing such a system must optimize the use of these resources, by maximizing positive interactions (facilitation) and minimizing negative ones (competition). To attain these objectives, the system's design has to include the spatial and temporal dimensions of these interactions, taking into account the evolution of above- and belowground interactions over a time horizon. However, a considerable amount of research has been conducted, on the one hand, to prove the interest of agroforestry, and on the other hand to propose models supporting cropping plan and crop rotation decisions, but to our knowledge, no model supports the spatial and temporal allocation of both vegetable crops and trees in agroforestry systems. Therefore, we initially built a first MFVCS prototype using the Weighted Constraint Satisfaction framework but the resolution was limited to small scale systems. In this paper, we explore larger MFVCS models using a solver based on Integer Quadratic Programming. The limits of exact methods in solving the MFVCS problem are presented showing the need for approximation methods able to solve a large scale system with solutions of good quality in reasonable time, which could be used in interactive design with farmers and advisers.
