Special Interest Group (SIG)
Agriculture and Natural Resources
One day meeting

Making better decisions for the management or governance of the agricultural and natural resource industries

Frank Parkinson Room, University of Reading,
2nd April 2009

10:30 Coffee and Registration
11:00 Introduction
11:15 Katie Stephen (SAC, Edinburgh) Life cycle assessment of environmental impacts of UK pig production systems
11:40 Marco Pautasso (Imperial, Ascot) Network models for the spread of plant disease in trade pathways
12:05 Andreas Brieden (Universität der Bundeswehr München, Germany) Land consolidation by means of Integer Linear Programming.
12:30 Jan Zazgornik (University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Austria) Vehicle Routing and Container Scheduling in Timber Transport
12:55 Lunch
14:00 Nonophile Nkambule (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa) An ecological-economic analysis of biodiesel feedstock production from smallholdings in rural South Africa
14:25 Maury E. Bredahl (University of Guelph Canada) Developing Managerial Decision Aids from Efficiency Analysis
14:50 Sam Wong (University of Leeds) Gendering Public Participation in Trans-boundary Water Governance – What can we Learn from the Volta River Basin in West Africa
15:15 Discussion and SIG meeting: 5 minute speeding dating introductions of practioners and their interests.
15:55 Summary & concluding remarks
16:00 Tea & departure
The OR Society: http://www.theorsociety.com/
SIG Chairman: Professor Tahir Rehman, University of Reading, T.U.Rehman@reading.ac.uk
SIG Secretary: Daniel Sandars, Cranfield University, daniel.sandars@cranfield.ac.uk

the Association of Applied Biologists

To be held at SAC, Edinburgh, UK
2-4 June 2009

The aim of this conference is to explore and identify effective methodologies, modelling and measuring techniques to analyse integrated systems. These systems are, by their very nature, complex and many interacting factors determine their development. It is now widely recognised across the scientific community and policymakers that issues such as climate change, biofuels and food security, impacts of agriculture on the environment, animal health and welfare, and agricultural policy and regulations are best addressed through an integrated systems approach. This timely and topical conference is being organised jointly by the Association of Applied Biologists, the British Society for Animal Science and the Agricultural Economics Society to discuss this rapidly developing area and share insights into how problems can be resolved. Conference participants will consider how recent research can enhance our understanding of how changes in the biophysical, economic and social environment are likely to impact on agricultural production and ecosystem services, and the wider implications for society.

The conference will consist of keynote addresses, offered papers and poster presentations and workshops that will focus on exploring the way forward.

The key themes for the conference are:

• Tools of the trade, for example integration of biophysical and economic modelling, investigation of scale, linking static and dynamic models, sensitivity and uncertainty analysis, data collection and availability, quality assurance.

• Lessons to be learnt, for example, case studies, building blocks of the system, linkages, application of models.

• The way forward, for example identification of strengths and weaknesses, deciding when integrated methodologies are appropriate.

Papers and posters from the conference will be reproduced in a volume of Aspects of Applied Biology, which will be available to delegates at the conference. Full papers will be encouraged to be submitted for publication in Annals of Applied Biology. Please send your offer to the AAB office (Email to anna@aab.org.uk; Fax +44 (0)1789 470234). Alternatively, you can submit an offer online, giving the title of the paper, authors, affiliations and a short synopsis of your paper. Click on ABSTRACTS in the left hand column, then click on the conference title. You can register your email and, after being sent a password, can upload your offer. Please indicate whether your offer is for a platform presentation or a poster.

The Operational Research Society

Special Interest Group on Agriculture and Natural Resources Call for Abstracts

Frank Parkinson Room, University of Reading, 2nd April 2009

Making better decisions for the management or governance of the agricultural and related natural resource industries

We invite contributions to this meeting of broadly relevant works.

There is no restriction on techniques or class of problem solved, but the work will be of an applied nature, and that may involve a considerably innovative approach.

To raise the profile of these contributions, abstracts they will be published in the Journal of Agricultural Science, subject to editorial review. They must be of completed or near completed work and prepared in the correct style (see Journal of Agricultural Science, Cambridge generally, but a similar preprint of proceedings is available http://hdl.handle.net/1826/2471). An abstract should be 350- 400 words of text and may, in addition, contain some equations, and at least one reference, for example to a more detailed presentation of the author’s work. Microsoft Word is preferred.

Those wishing to contribute should send an abstract to:
D L Sandars (Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Meeting) Natural Resources Management Centre, Building 42a, School of Applied Science, Cranfield University Cranfield, Bedfordshire, MK43 0AL

E-mail: daniel.sandars@cranfield.ac.uk

Fax: +44 (0) 1234 752971

by Monday, 2nd March 2009.

Each talk will be of 15 minutes duration, followed by 5 minutes discussion. We will endeavour to select a balanced programme of contributions from those offered. This event is timed to exploiting synergies with the Agricultural Research Modeller’s meeting in London (contact Les Crompton, University of Reading, l.a.crompton@reading.ac.uk) the following day. If you have to travel a distance why not stay a night and do both?

Depending on numbers we may recommend that the talks form part of the latter event in London rather than the proposed standalone event in Reading.

T. U. Rehman & D. L. Sandars; 9th September 2008

Agriculture and Natural Resources Stream

Chairs: Daniel L Sandars (Cranfield University, UK) and Lluis M Plà (University of Lleida, Spain)
Introduction
This stream has been jointly organised by the OR Society special interest group on Agriculture and Natural Resources (SIG-ANR) and the EURO working group on OR in Agriculture and Forestry Management (EWG-ORAFM). The stream is of an applied nature but contains much technique that has been used in a very innovative fashion. The keynote paper is a UK perspective of the history, strengths and weaknesses of OR applied to agriculture. The other papers cover a wide range of subjects from primary production to distribution to consumer behaviour. The sectors covered include, agriculture, food, forestry, and conservation. The talks range from problem-solving applications to reviews of methods and the skills and craft of applied OR. To celebrate this science, to envision the future and to develop collective identity the stream includes discussion sessions on sustainability and on applied OR as well as an open community meeting

Update 22nd July

1. Darren Holland, Food Standards Agency, The impact of media campaigns on food poisoning

Update 13th June 2008

1. Eric Audsley, Cranfield University (UK), A systems modelling approach to Life Cycle Inventories of agricultural and horticultural production.

Update 12th June 2008

1. Mrs Zipporah Kiruthu; University of Ghent, Belgium; Capacity building in the Kenyan dairy industry

Update 11th June 2008

One further paper

1. Prof Heiner Müller-Merbach, University Kaiserslautern (Germany), FIVE OBJECTS OF MODELLING

For a recent listing of all submitted papers see: http://www.theorsociety.com/conf/or50/OR50_titles.pdf

And note Andrew Challinor has had to withdraw (see below)

Update 27th May 2008
Two further titles

1. Jesse O’Hanley, University of Kent, How to choose: prioritizing the removal of fish passage barriers.

2. Anna Greda, Jagiellonian University & Warsaw University, Poland, MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS OF BOCR IN QUALITY IMPROVING OF FOOD PRODUCTS

Update 16th May 2008.

Two further submissions

1. Soleiman Mohammadi Limaei; University of Guilan, Somehsara, Iran;  Duopsony game theory application in pulpwood market in Iran

2. Patrick Hirsch; BOKU - University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna - Institute of Production and Logistics; Scheduling of log-trucks

The two debating sessions are both on.  We are getting close to the point where this stream may be forced to go to parallel sessions

Update 30th April 2008

To date we have had 15 submissions as detailed below with only the speaker listed. The call doesn’t finally close until late June
Keynote: Eric Audsley, Cranfield University, 50 years of applying OR to agricultural systems
1. Stephen Ramsden, University of Nottingham, Climate change adaptation with price variability
2. Lars Relund Nielsen, University of Aarhus, Dept. of Genetics and Biotechnology, Optimal daily replacement policies for dairy
3. Mohamed Bendaoud, Macaulay Institute, Modelling climate change impact in dry area
4. Tahir Rehman, University of Reading, OR Models in Agricultural Economics & Management
5. Jarkko Niemi, Agrifood Research Finland (MTT), Economic Research, Optimization of piglet production with a DP model
6. Cairistiona (Kairsty) Topp, SAC, Emergy analysis of Scottish cropping
7. Sara Verónica Rodríguez Sánchez , Dep. Mathematics, University of Lleida, Study of the convergence of Markov chain in livestock
8. Andrew Challinor, University of Leeds, Genotypic adaptation to climate
9. Andrew Higgins, CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, Agricultural value chains
10. Daniel Sandars, Cranfield University, Predicting farmer decision behaviour
11. Javier Faulin, Public University of Navarre, Delivering Products in an Agribusiness Company
12. Isabel Martins, Centro de Investigação Operacional, Departamento de Matemática, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Branch-and-Price for Harvest Scheduling
13. Carlos R. Garcia-Alonso, ETEA, University of Cordoba, SPAIN., Efficiency and Sustainability Spatial Distribution
14. Peter Rauch, BOKU University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Terminal location for forest fuel supply

The conference stream will also be the focal point for meetings of the EURO Working Group Operational Research in Agriculture and Forest Management and the UK Special Interest Group on Agriculture and Natural Resources

Food production and supply chain management

to be published in the ISI rated journal OR Spectrum.

Possible topics for contributions are

• Design of food production and distribution systems
• Advanced Planning in the food sector
• Application of OR to problems in agriculture
• Risk assessment, safety management and traceability in food supply chains
• Detailed planning and scheduling of processing operations
• Shelf-life and perishable inventory management
• Logistics execution and transportation management
• Demand and revenue management in the food industries
• Sustainability, such as environmental issues in production and distribution, reverse and closed-loop supply chains, animal friendliness

Due to the focus of the journal on Operations Research, the papers must also make an original contribution with regards to the development of quantitative methodology.

Editors of the special issue are Jack van der Vorst from Wageningen University and myself, Martin Grunow, Technical University of Denmark. Deadline for submissions is 31 December 2008. Please find more details in the attached call for papers.

We are looking forward to your submissions. Please contact me in case you have any questions relating to the special issue.

Best regards, Martin

Martin Grunow
Technical University of Denmark
Department of Management Engineering
Industrial Engineering and Management
Produktionstorvet
Building 425, office: 111
2800 Kgs. Lyngby (Copenhagen), Denmark
phone : + 45 45 25 44 40
secr. : + 45 45 25 44 34
fax : + 45 45 25 60 05
mailto:grunow@ipl.dtu.dk

http://www.ipl.dtu.dk/grunow

Dr Siwan lovett gave a talk to Cranfield University about the foundation of Australia’s first Rver Restoration Centre (ARRC) http://www.arrc.com.au

They key is the empowerment of local communities to take care of their Riparian habitats and to develop the capacity for local communities to exercise that power. It was important to identify and give voice to all stakeholders, espcially those that don’t have power, such as aboriginies. This sounded good territory for soft OR: Problem Structuring Methods, Soft Systems Methodology and Multi-Criteria Decision Making methods.

There are questions about some tools concerning anthropocentrism and mechanistic additivity.  In the first case we neglect that species are worth conserving regardless of mankind’s value of them.  In the second case we can neglect the fact that viable ecosystems are worth more than the sum of their parts.

A fascinating challenge is that of applied multi-disciplinary science in an academic setting.  Can the centre both deliver sustainable change at a community level as well as generate high impact research hits, which are the standard measure of academic excellence.

The communication of science will be key to their success. Some scientists are good at this and should be encouraged, but on other occassions it takes someone else. An example of the resistance to anyting ‘not invented here’ crops up with each stakeholder requiring the same information, but presented in their own style, e.g. sheep farmers will not accept litreature prepared for dairy farmers.

I recently had call to put forward my views on interdisciplinarity and OR. My current funding comes from a programme that aims to create an interdisciplinary synthesis between natural and social scientists to solve problems relating to sustainable rural development.

I am now increasingly of the view that social scientists are arrogant, natural scientists are ignorant, and both need bombing out of their ivory towers if interdisciplinarity is to have a chance. To understand why see http://www.relu.ac.uk/research/Discussions%20on%20interdisciplinarity.html and the article on Operational Research.

I’d be interested if anyone else has formed opinions one way or another. It would be instructive to share them. email daniel

Recently I discovered that one OR professional did become an interdisciplinarian. He was Baron Solly Zuckerman, a South African, the chief scientific advisor to the British Government (1964 to 1971). One thing he did was to challenge the efficacy of monodisciplinary academia to serve policy. He is credited with introducing science into policy making in Western European Government see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solly_Zuckerman. Also see him mentioned as part of the early history of OR with respect to South Africa http://www.orssa.org.za/wiki/pmwiki.php?n=AboutTheSociety.EarlyHistory

VIEWPOINT
Gonzalo Oviedo

As representatives of the world’s governments gather to address shortages in major foodstuffs and rising prices, Gonzalo Oviedo counsels them to focus on ecosystems. The modern business-dominated agricultural industry, he argues, promotes the degradation of nature - and that, in turn, means less and worse food.

more

Title: Modelling impacts of cropping systems: Demands and solutions for DEX methodology
Authors: Znidarsic, M; Bohanec, M; Zupan, B
Source:EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH 189 (3): 594-608 SEP 16 2008

Title: Development of an intelligent reasoning system to distinguish hunger states in Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)
Authors: Cubitt, KF; Williams, HT; Rowsell, D; McFarlane, WJ; Gosine, RG; Butterworth, KG; McKinley, RS
Source: COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE 62 (1): 29-34 JUN 2008

Title: A cognitive vision approach to early pest detection in greenhouse crops
Authors: Boissard, P; Martin, V; Moisan, S
Source: COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE 62 (2): 81-93 JUL 2008

Title: Optimization of Fire blight scouting with a decision support system based on infection risk
Authors: Kuflik, T; Pertot, I; Moskovitch, R; Zasso, R; Pellegrini, E; Gessler, C
Source: COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE 62 (2): 118-127 JUL 2008

Title: Hybrid Petri nets modeling for farm work flow
Authors: Guan, S; Nakamura, M; Shikanai, T; Okazaki, T
Source: COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE 62 (2): 149-158 JUL 2008

Title: Simulating plant productivity under different organic fertilization practices in a maize/native pasture rotation system in semi-arid NE Brazil
Authors: Peinetti, HR; Menezes, RSC; Tiessen, H; Marin, AMP
Source: COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE 62 (2): 204-222 JUL 2008

Title: Implementation of fertilizer policy in Bangladesh under alternative scenarios: An application of multicriteria analysis modeling
Authors: Begum, MAA; Manos, B; Manikas, I
Source: ASIA-PACIFIC JOURNAL OF OPERATIONAL RESEARCH 24 (6): 765-787 DEC 2007

Title: Use of available information at a European level to construct crop nitrogen response curves for the regions of the EU
Authors: Godard, C; Roger-Estrade, J; Jayet, PA; Brisson, N; Le Bas, C
Source: AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS 97 (1-2): 68-82 APR 2008

Integrated Assessment of Agriculture ands Sustainable Development (AgSAP)

10-12 March, 2009
Hotel Zuiderduin,
Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands

Until October 15,2008 Submission of abstracts (papers, posters and demonstration) indicating a preferred session (and a second choice). Two page abstracts (MS Word only) following a template available on the website should be sent to AgSAP.office@wur.nl

Scope of the event
The conference aims to:
i) present the state-of-the-art of scientific approaches to assess agricultural systems in the context
of sustainable development, and
ii) propose an agenda for future research in this domain.
Alternative methods and modelling approaches, applications and policy support options will be
evaluated, compared and good practices defined. Focus is on the integration and use of models for
linking science and policy, as a method for improving natural resource use, policy making and policy
implementation in agriculture. Specifically, the conference will present:
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