Strategic and Tactical Urban Farm Design

International audienceWe use mix integer linear programing to establish a model for fresh fruit and vegetable production. We aim at maximizing the annual farm result, responding to a fixed daily demand. Our main variables are the area to grow using specific management practices, the beginning date of each plot cultivation and the workers to hire to produce. We introduce variables to consider the perishability of the products in different ways. As Ahumada and Villalobos (2009), we use a storage cold room loss function and cold room limited capacity. But we also allow a standing storage on the plot, associated to another loss function: the crops can be harvested some days after the ideal harvest time. The selling price is lowered according to storage time, both on the plot and in the cold room. We force the unsold products left on the plots (losses) to be harvested before a management practice dependent deadline, to limit diseases and insects proliferation. Considering short time perishability (a few days) make us work on a tow-day step. It enables a good combination of different crop management practices on the farm to have the best labor affectation. Perishability, considered at a tactical level, has major consequences on the strategic farming system sizing