Operations research models and the management of agricultural and forestry resources: A review and comparison

Abstract

Operations research (OR) has helped people to understand and manage agricultural and forestry resources during the last 40 years. We analyzed its use to assess the past performance of OR models in this field and to highlight current problems and future directions of research and applications. Thus, in the agriculture part, we concentrate on planning problems at the farm and regional-sector level, environmental implications, risk and uncertainty issues, multiple criteria, and the formulation of livestock rations and feeding stuffs. In the forestry part, we concentrate on planning problems at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels, implementation issues, environmental implications, as well as the treatment of uncertainty and multiple objectives. Finally we made a comparison between the two areas in terms of problem types, problem-solving approaches, and reported applications.