A LP model to manage the agro-energy system

The interaction between private and public objectives may be a source of conflict in case the farmers decide to produce energy, many factors must be taken into account: i) induced instability of the agricultural commodity market and consequent risk due to wider price fluctuations; ii) domestic political decisions concerning the prices of crops and incentives; iii) environmental conservation and natural resources policy; iv) efficiency of agrifood and agro-energy chain and management of information; v) other factors related to the social condition or status of farmers as security, quality of life. (Lansink O., 2006). These considerations suggest the policy makers to take into account the opportunity to formulate strategies that best conciliate these conflicting interests by searching a compromise. (Dodgson et al. 2000; Voogd 1982), Weeler and Russel (1977) Different solutions have been tempted by introducing several goals in the farm decision making: gross margin, minimum seasonal cash exposure, stable employment, ecological impact, quality of natural resource conservation. For the farm planning problem, the decision maker, according with his own preferences, will set up a ranking of some preferred attributes to be included in the objective function