Management System for Harvest Scheduling:The Case of Horticultural Production in Southeast Spain

摘要

This article analyzes the programming of farm production, understood not only as the choiceamong several crops, but also as their temporal distribution. The empirical study takes as areference the horticultural sector in southeast Spain, since this area constitutes the highestconcentration of small-scale farm production in Europe, where the climatic conditions allow thepossibility of several harvests in year-round production, as well as several alternative crops.Firstly, we study the production programming for an individual farmer, under the assumptionthat their decisions do not affect the balance of market prices. In this case a modified Markowitzmodel is used for the scheduling of crop marketing. Secondly, we study the sales arrangementsfor a farming-marketing cooperative, under the assumption that their sales volume is such thatthe entity is capable of altering the market balance. A model of monthly revenues and margins isproposed, and the results show a clear improvement in both margins and revenues if the harvestis programmed in this way.