Designing price-contingent vegetable rotation schedules using agent-based simulation

• Main Authors: Jing LI, Daniel Rodriguez, Hao-xiang WANG, Liu-san WU
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2018-02-01
• Series: Journal of Integrative Agriculture
• Subjects: operation research in agriculture; self-adaptive algorithm; cooperatives; market fluctuation
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095311917617416

Chinese vegetable production cooperatives supply their members, mostly smallholder farmers, with a rotation schedule for the year. Since vegetable prices are not stable throughout the year, designing a rotation schedule that maximizes expected profits, distributes farmers' profits more equitably, maintains the diversity of produce in the market, and reduces the risk of pests and diseases, requires adaptive, price-contingent rotation schedules (here, called “self-adaptive adjustment”). This study uses an agent-based simulation (ABS) to design self-adaptive rotation schedules that deliver these aims. The self-adaptive adjustment strategy was more profitable for farmers when faced with price volatility, and more equitable as well. This work provides a decision-support tool for managers of Chinese vegetable production cooperatives to provide farmers with more profitable and equitable rotation schedules.