Development of a mathematical tool to aid the organic family agricultural production planning

• Grant number: 22/05515-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering - Operational Research
• Principal Investigator: Marina Andretta
• Grantee: Mônica Amaral Novelli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Matemáticas e de Computação (ICMC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 13/07375-0 - CeMEAI - Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry, AP.CEPID

Abstract

This project aims at the application of mathematical tools to optimize the work of family farmers, in particular, those who cultivate organic products. More precisely, we intend to use optimization tools to decide what and when to plant in each region of the land, taking into account the products that are available for planting, the possible demands for each product, and cultivation conditions (such as land resting and green fertilization). For this, we will collect the necessary data with producers of properties in São Carlos (interior of São Paulo), we will model the problem as a mixed integer linear optimization problem and we will adapt a method from the literature to solve it. We will implement a computational tool to help family producers solve instances of the problem and we will use real data to test and validate such a tool.(AU)