Crop Planning in the Presence of Production Quotas (Invited Paper)

The aim of this paper is to present a multiple objective programming model for crop planning under uncertainty in the presence of production quotas. The model is a 0-1 programming model that uses loss functions. Starting from it, one formulates several single objective models: the average loss minimization model; the expected return maximization model; the financial risk minimization model; the loss-return-risk tradeoff model. The models take into account climate risks, market risks and several classes of land quality. They are based on loss function theory and portfolio theory. Simulations in the above mentioned models are made starting from historical data or from scenarios generated by various probability distribution functions. We analyze losses associated to the optimal production plans that try to comply to the target production quotas versus various parameters of the average loss minimization model.