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1172. Sustainable crop planning for mixed cropping systems – An optimisation approach

Invited abstract in session WC-13: Sustainable Food Supply, stream Secure & Sustainable Food Supply.

Wednesday, 12:30-14:00
Room: 15 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Alfaima L. Solano-Blanco
Industrial Engineering and Innovation Sciences, Eindhoven University of Technology
2. Sonja Rohmer
Department of Logistics and Operations Management, HEC Montreal
3. Tom van Woensel
Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

Abstract

Playing a vital role for global food supply, agriculture contributes significantly to current challenges such as biodiversity loss and greenhouse gas emissions. The pursuit of sustainable agriculture aims to find a balance between food production, environmental conservation, and financial viability. Strip cropping presents a promising avenue, in this context, by organizing farmland into smaller plots of different crops to enhance their resistance to pests, increase biodiversity and improve overall soil health. However, at the same time, simultaneous crop management poses operational challenges that prevent the implementation of strip cropping at a large scale. The use of broader strips can decrease these implementation barriers for farmers yet may dilute the ecological benefits by reducing interactions between adjacent crops. These trade-offs complicate the process of devising efficient strip cropping strategies. The aim of this research is to support farmers in this process through the development of a decision support tool. For this purpose, we propose a crop planning model which integrates crop selection and land allocation decisions under consideration of both spatial and temporal diversity. By determining ideal strip widths and cropping schedules, the model steers farmers towards strip cropping practices that are both economically viable as well as ecologically favorable, thereby promoting a sustainable future for agriculture and global food supply.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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