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

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:
More

The fate of strategic applied OR; W(h)ither Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Fisheries, etc! Or w(h)ither not?

Lluis Plà, & Daniel L Sandars, Javier Faulin

There is long term economic decline in the biotic primary production industries as sources of employment and thus students. Globalisation adds its toll as the food chain concentrates into control by few multi-national companies. Long-term capacity building research investments are out of fashion in many national governments.

[poll id="3"][poll id="4"]
1) Through farmers and fishermen society access many increasingly scarce ecosystems services, such as bio-diversity and clean water. Society doesn’t expect to pay so OR will not pay?
2) World population might yet hit 9 billion with many of our lives. For the first time in a generation food security has been thrown into question in the developed world. Are we back in business?
3) In the absence of a strong strategic governmental lead can the large companies with their vast data and financial resource take up the slack? That’ll never work, beyond some short term-tactical profit-maximising studies, with no regard to societal interests? Perhaps consumers and farmers will be king!
4) It maybe that it is supra-national organisations such as multi-nationals, the FAO or the EC to take the lead? That’ll never work because agriculture is so spatially heterogeneous and needs local knowledge?
5) When the last agricultural student has left university we will simply get applied biologists and mathematicians to collaborate. Rubbish! Multi-disciplinary collaboration does not lead to good interdisciplinary science?
6) Are e-tools and open-access journals the answer to maintaining critical mass and vitality in an increasingly sparse profession without the support of dedicated university departments and research establishments?

Use the comment option to express your views. There will be a delay as comments will be moderated for Spam before publication.

Cambridge Conservation Forum / RELU 2008 Summer Symposium

Future farming in the UK: global implications for society and biodiversity

New Hall, Cambridge Thursday 3rd July 2008

Background and aim

UK agriculture could change radically over the next few decades as a result of global economic development, population growth, climate change, technological advances (e.g. biofuels) and rising oil prices. Indeed such international linkages have been illustrated recently by events, such as droughts in Australia and increasing biofuel production, that have led to significant increases in wheat prices.

more

Title: ICSA2008
Location: Sapporo, Japan
Description: “Sustainability on Food, Feed, Fiber, Water, Energy: Science, Technologies, and Global Strategies”
Start Date: 2008-07-02
End Date: 2008-07-06

We are moving close to the point where to conference database will be polled for titles and authors to use in the invitational program.  The call for papers remains up until at least the end of June.  We currently have 14 submissions in our stream and a few that we know are in the pipe line. We probably represent around 7-10% of the conference activity at this stage.

Lluis Pla and myself are leading two plenary debates where we raise issues from agriculture and set them into a wider OR debate, each lasting around 90minutes.  The deabtes will be transcribed by the OR society for publication in OR INSIGHT, the society’s magazine. The titles are:

1) Sustainability! Cometh the hour, cometh the Operational Researcher?

2) Strategic Applied OR: Wither Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries, etc or wither not?

Within the setting of the conference we will also be holding meeting for EWG-ORAFM and for the UK Special Interest Group

    Learning and Intelligent OptimizatioN Conference

                              LION 3
                                  

                14-18 January, 2009. Trento, Italy

              More details and up-to-date information at
                www.intelligent-optimization.org/LION3

                                  
Building on the success of the previous editions we are organizing a new event for January 2009. The LION conference is aimed at exploring the boundaries and uncharted territories between machine learning, artificial intelligence, mathematical programming and algorithms for hard optimization problems. The main purpose of the event is to bring together experts from these areas to discuss new ideas and methods, challenges and opportunities in various application areas, general trends and specific developments.

The conference program will consist of plenary presentations, introductory and advanced tutorials, technical presentations, and it will give ample time for discussions.

Relevant Research Areas
========================

LION 3 solicits contributions dealing with all aspects of learning and intelligent optimization. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Stochastic local search methods and meta-heuristics
- Hybridizations of constraint and mathematical programming with
meta-heuristics
- Supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning applied to
heuristic search
- Reactive search (online self-tuning methods)
- Algorithm portfolios and off-line tuning methods
- Algorithms for dynamic, stochastic and multi-objective problems
- Interface(s) between discrete and continuous optimization
- Experimental analysis and modeling of algorithms
- Theoretical foundations
- Parallelization of optimization algorithms
- Memory-based optimization
- Prohibition-based methods (tabu search)
- Memetic algorithms
- Evolutionary algorithms
- Dynamic local search
- Iterated local search
- Variable neighborhood search
- Swarm intelligence methods (ant colony optimization, particle swarm
optimization etc.)
(more…)

The Second International Conference
on Computer & Computing Technologies in Agriculture (CCTA2008)
  October 18th-20th, 2008 Beijing, China

Dear Sir/Madam,
We are pleased to inform you that the Second International Conference on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture (CCTA2008) will be held in Beijing, China in October 18-20, 2008. The URL Address is http://www.iccta.cn.
The conference will focus on Computer and Computing Technologies in Agriculture and targeted participants are from universities, institutes, research organizations, government, large companies, and regional development agencies and consultants all over the world. The conference will provide a forum for original research contributions and practical system design, implementation, and applications of computer and computing technologies in agriculture.
All accepted papers will be published in the Proceedings of CCTA 2008. Selected best papers will be published in a special issue of the International Journals (we have applied, and will let you know the results as soon as possible). Other papers will be published in the IFIP Series in Spinger Press in USA, which was listed in ISI Proceedings.
All abstracts should be submitted to the Secretary of the Conference at ccta2008@sina.com, by not later than February 29, 2008.

Topics and areas of interest include, but are not limited to the following Technologies in Agriculture:
Applied Mathematics
Numerical Analysis
Simulation, Optimization, Modeling
Systems Theory
Circuits and Systems
Neural Networks
Fuzzy Systems
Optimization
Multidimensional Systems
Computing & Computational Science
Statistics
Telecommunications
Signal Processing
Computer Science
Multimedia
Wireless and Optical Communications
Agricultural Decision Support System and Expert System
GIS, GPS, RS and Precision Farming
Agricultural System Simulation
Intelligent Monitoring and Control
ICT applications in Rural Area
(more…)

Members of the Operational Research Society and proven Members of affiliated EURO national OR Societies (http://www.euro-online.org/display.php?page=societies&) can claim discounted fees of around 20%. 

Students recieve a discount of c. 70% 

Also see the very restricted Assisted Places Scheme with deadline of 30th June

http://www.orsoc.org.uk/orshop/(nusgkj55o3zmft45bu5di5fy)/orcontent.aspx?inc=or50_assisted.htm

 Agriculture and natural resources stream

Dates:

Papers can be accepted for presentation at any stage before the conference, but bear in mind these dates to obtain maximum impact and publicity.

1. As Soon As Possible submit a working title and authors
2. By 25th April submit a finalized title and authors for inclusion in the invitational programme
3. By 1st July submit a finalized 250 word abstract for the conference handbook

Abstracts are submitted via the OR society’s website  http://www.theorsociety.com

Attendence fees are discuounted to members of the Operational Research society and to the affiliated societies within EURO

In addition to meeting at OR50 a relaunch event is planned for February 2009. Send expressions of interest in this special interest group to Daniel Sandars, Cranfield University, e-mail daniel.sandars@cranfield.ac.uk