The Effect of CAP Policy Incentives for the Environmental and Economic Performance of Cereal Farms in South-Central Bulgaria

This paper aims to assess the effects of three mechanisms of the Common Agricultural Policy incentivizing environmentally friendly farming practices, on a model cereal farm’s environmental and economic performance. Based on linear goal programming method and input data on the farm’s size, production system, crop yield and gross margin per crop, the model optimizes the farm’s production structure. The results indicate that the availability of support is essential for the economic results of cereal farms in South-Central Bulgaria. Generally, higher gross margin corresponds to higher greenhouse gas emissions and vice versa. Nevertheless, the addition of policy support decreases the degree of this dependency by improving the profitability of some less GHG-intensive crops. This allows farmers to consider more environmentally-friendly crops and production practices without having to cut profits. An optimal balance between farms’ environmental and economic performance is crucial in order for agriculture to continue to support vital ecosystem services.

Gender Differentials and Optimal Combination of Crop Enterprises under Limited Resource Conditions in South Western Nigeria: A Case Study of Cocoa-based Farming Systems

This study investigated gender differentials and an optimal combination of crop enterprises in southwestern. Specifically, it described the socio-economic characteristics of households in cocoa-based farming by gender; determine enterprise combinations of households in the cocoa-based farming systems and profile gender participation in optimal farm plan activities in cocoa-based farming systems. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select 200 respondents, comprising 147 males and 53 females. Data were collected on socioeconomic characteristics such as age, household size, years of schooling and year of farming experience among others. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and linear goal programming. Descriptive statistics show that majority of the respondents aged above 60 years comprising of 46.5% male and 2% females, married comprising of 69.5% male and 20% female, and had a household size of between 7 and 12 persons, with males accounting for 25.5% and females 12.5%. Most of the respondents had primary school education in the study area, with 73.8% male and 26.2% female. Goal ranking showed that food security; increased income; and reduced production cost are the most important goals among farmers in the cocoa-based farming system. The linear goal programming model shows that Cocoa and Banana; Cocoa, Oil Palm and Plantain and Cocoa, Maize, Cassava and Orange are the optimal enterprise combination. It further showed that farmers will incur a cost of N38, 833.56/ha on the three basic activities to achieve the stated goals. The shadow prices for the fully utilized resources were N9348, N1352 and N6.52 for land, hired labour and capital respectively. The result further showed that 67 percent of the goal components was achieved. Percentages of female-headed households in cocoa/banana, cocoa/oil palm/plantain and cocoa/maize/cassava/orange enterprises were 45%, 31% and 0% respectively. For the goals of food security, increased income and reduced farm production costs to be accomplished in the study area, farmers should produce 0.2 ha of cocoa/banana, 1.2 ha of cocoa/oil palm/plantain and 1.25 ha of cocoa/maize/cassava/orange in the study area. Also, conscious efforts should be made by policymakers to ensure gender equality in the access and use of productive farm resources.

A Deterministic Multi-Objective Optimization Process of Multi-Item Inventory Management in Fmcg Industry

The inventory management is the crucial part of any of the company’s, and nowadays, they find challenging to perceive out the optimal quantity level needed to overcome from shortages problem and also to reduce the wastages.In this paper, we used a multi-criteria decision-making for formulating the inventory management problem without shortages with the aim of optimizing profit and holding cost of the company simultaneously. We have also considered both ordering cost and storage cost as a non-linear function of the rapid stock level. In addition we used linear goal programming to find out the minimum optimal quantity level to put in the inventory to reduce out of stock situation. Finally, a numerical illustration of FMCG Company has been taken to show the application of proposed work.

Linear Goal Programming Method for Optimal Decision Making of Multi-Criteria Assignment Problems

The decision making process is the essence of the administrative process and its means of achieving the goals of the service organizations or productivity because the decision contributes mainly to enable them to carry out their administrative activities efficiently and effectively. The assignment process is one of the most important problems affecting the organizations performance because to determine the administrative composition of the organization. The correct decision making to the assignment problem and the right person in the right place will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. The previous methods to solve these problems depend on a single criterion such as cost, profit, time and so on. In this paper, three models were formulated for the of multi-criteria assignment problem. The first model multiple objective for present assignment problem when the assignment matrix is square, while the second and third models are a non-square assignment problem. The second model is the number of rows is greater than the number of columns while the third model where the number of columns larger than the rows. The second model is applied to the assignment problem of unit managers in the college of Administration and Economics based on two criteria: deferring the employee's desire to leader of task and the other criterion of assignment cost and using goal programming method. The data were collected by questionnaire.

Product mix optimization on multi-constraint production planning-a Fuzzy Mixed Integer Linear Goal Programming (FMILGP) approach: A single case study

Creating effective and efficient production planning becomes one of the most intriguing efforts for most of the Indonesian enterprises. This study introduces an optimization model of product mix to solve the production planning problems, by considering certain multi-constraint: limited existing resources, objectives to be achieved, and fuzzy characteristics of demand and production costs. By applying Fuzzy Mixed Integer Linear Goal Programming, this study tries to determine the optimal solutions of product mix. The study consists of several steps: capacity constraint resource analysis, formulation of the optimization models, determines the products mix and the multi-criteria objective value. The proposed product mix model is then validated by conducting a preliminary study to one enterprise. The preliminary study showed that the proposed model is able to provide an increase of multi-criteria objective value by 4.81% compared to the existing conditions.