Operations Research Problems and Data Envelopment Analysis in Agricultural Land Processing – A Review

Bisera Andrić Gušavac; Gordana Savić

doi:10.7595/management.fon.2020.0016

Bisera Andrić Gušavac University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences,Laboratory of Operational Research “Jovan Petrić“, Serbia
Gordana Savić University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Laboratory of Operational Research “Jovan Petrić“, Centre for Efficiency Analysis, Serbia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2020.0016

Abstract

Research Question: This paper aims at specifying the contribution of operations research (OR) methods and techniques to agricultural land processing. Motivation: Agricultural production is performed on an agricultural land, which has to be exploited in the best possible way, given the increasing human population and the limited availability of the land. Considering the importance of this issue, a large number of research studies dealing with problems in agriculture can be found in the literature, and many of these problems are solved by OR methods and techniques. However, to our knowledge, there are no review papers that deal with this specific area, so the main motivation is to provide a detailed review of selected OR methods application in the agricultural land processing area. Idea: The core idea behind this research is to perceive a real impact of OR methods and techniques implementation in the agricultural land processing. The research is based on detailed literature review for the period 2014-2019 and performed statistics involving publication by year, publication by journal and statistics involving keywords in articles. Data: The review was conducted using online repositories of the papers published in SCI and SCIe journals with impact factors in the period from 2014-2019. Tools: Analyzed papers are divided into three groups according to the OR method applied: linear optimization problems, DEA method and other OR methods (non linear, multicriteria, mixed integer programming, dynamic programming). Papers within the groups are analyzed according to the type of problems solved. Statistical analyses of all collected data were used to get a good insight into the applications of operations research problems and data envelopment analysis in agricultural land processing. Findings: The number of published papers in this specific area has a growing trend over the observed years (with some minor decrease in 2016 and 2019 in comparison with the previous year). All of the articles are related to specific application of the given methods to solving problems in the agricultural land processing, and this is the reason for many different keywords appearing in the articles. Some very important keywords such as “operations research” or “OR” does not appear in any article as a keyword. Inclusion of such common keywords may result in a faster search in repositories of all articles. Contribution: The primary contribution of this paper is a detailed review of application of linear optimization, data envelopment analysis and other OR methods in agricultural land processing in the period 2014-2019.

Author Biographies

Bisera Andrić Gušavac, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences,Laboratory of Operational Research “Jovan Petrić“, Serbia

Bisera Andrić Gušavac is a PhD candidate working at the of Operational Research “Jovan Petrić“ at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences. She has a degree in Specialized Master of Industrial Engineering organized by the prestigious French faculty École Centrale Paris, as a scholarship holder of the French government. Her research interests include mathematical modelling, optimization, industrial engineering and performance analytics. Bisera Andrić Gušavac is an author or co-author of more than 40 scientific and research papers. She was a member of the project teams in four national and international research projects and has been active in organizing scientific conferences (BALCOR; SYM-OP-IS and SymOrg).

Gordana Savić, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Laboratory of Operational Research “Jovan Petrić“, Centre for Efficiency Analysis, Serbia

Gordana Savić is an Associate professor in the Operational Research, Performance and Business Analytics at the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences and Faculty of Agriculture. She received a PhD degree in Operations Research from the University of Belgrade, Faculty of Organizational Sciences in 2012. She is head of Laboratory for Operational Research and Centre for Efficiency Analysis. Her research interests include mathematical modelling, optimization, business and performance analytics. Gordana is an author or co-author of more than 100 scientific and research papers. Out of them, more than 25 are monograph chapters and papers in leading scientific journals including European Journal of Operational Research, Expert Systems with Application, Higher Education and Scientometrics. She is a member of the project teams in more than ten national and international projects and participant in several research projects. She also was a participant, coordinator, or leader of a wide range of practical projects in the fields of ICT consulting, performance analytics, mathematical modelling and optimization. Gordana serves as a reviewer, editor and guest editor in several leading international and national journals. Furthermore, she has been active in organizing scientific conferences as chair of organizing and member of scientific and organizing committees (BALCOR; SYM-OP-IS and SymOrg).