Optimizing the construction and use of shared wheat storage facilities

There is increasing demand for the construction of efficient new wheat storage facilities on farms and in villages to maximize the profitability of smallholder farmers. Meeting this demand is often challenging because the construction of efficient wheat storage facilities often requires financial resources that are beyond the capabilities of individual farmers. To overcome this challenge, there is a pressing need for cooperative approaches that allow farmers to contribute a percentage of their annual profit from wheat sales to build storage facilities that can be shared by all participating farmers. A novel model was developed for optimizing the construction and use of shared wheat storage facilities to maximize the annual profits of farmers. The optimization model was designed to cover two phases: pre-construction and postconstruction. The pre-construction phase was designed to optimize the monthly storage and sale of wheat in existing facilities to maximize the profit of each farmer from the sale of wheat. The post-construction phase used the allocated portions of the farmers' optimal profits that were generated during the pre-construction phase to optimize the construction of new wheat storage facilities. The post-construction phase of the model was also designed to optimize the use and storage of wheat in new and existing farm facilities during the post-construction phase. A case study is analyzed to illustrate the use of the developed model and demonstrate its unique capabilities. These unique capabilities enable farmers to maximize their annual profits, expand their wheat storage capacities, and minimize wheat losses during the storage of wheat. © 2016 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.