Transfer of manure as fertilizer from livestock farms to crop fields: The case of Catalonia
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Author
Kamilaris, Andreas
Engelbrecht, Andries
Pitsillides, Andreas
Prenafeta-Boldú, Francesc X.
Publication date
2020-06-20ISSN
0168-1699
Abstract
Intensive livestock production might have a negative environmental impact, by producing large amounts of animal manure, which, if not properly managed, can contaminate nearby water bodies with nutrient excess. However, if animal manure is exported to nearby crop fields, to be used as organic fertilizer, pollution can be mitigated. It is a single-objective optimization problem, in regards to finding the best solution for the logistics process of satisfying nutrient needs of crops by means of livestock manure. This paper proposes three different approaches to solve the problem: a centralized optimal algorithm (COA), a decentralized nature-inspired cooperative technique, based on the foraging behaviour of ants (AIA), as well as a naive neighbour-based method (NBS), which constitutes the existing practice used today in an ad hoc, uncoordinated manner in Catalonia. Results show that the COA approach is 8.5% more efficient than the AIA. However, the AIA approach is fairer to the farmers and more balanced in terms of average transportation distances that need to be covered by each livestock farmer, while it is 1.07 times more efficient than the NBS. Our work constitutes the first application of a decentralized AIA to this interesting real-world problem, in a domain where swarm intelligence methods are still under-exploited.
Document Type
Article
Document version
Accepted version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
502 - The environment and its protection
504 - Threats to the environment
63 - Agriculture and related sciences and techniques
631/635 - Farm management. Agronomy. Horticulture
636 - Animal husbandry and breeding in general. Livestock rearing. Breeding of domestic animals
Pages
40
Publisher
Elsevier
Is part of
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture
Citation
Kamilaris, Andreas, Andries Engelbrecht, Andreas Pitsillides, and Francesc X. Prenafeta-Boldú. 2020. "Transfer Of Manure As Fertilizer From Livestock Farms To Crop Fields: The Case Of Catalonia". Computers And Electronics In Agriculture 175: 105550. doi:10.1016/j.compag.2020.105550.
Grant agreement number
EC/H2020/739578/EU/Research Center on Interactive Media, Smart System and Emerging Technologies/RISE
EC/H2020/665919/EU/Opening Sphere UAB-CEI to PostDoctoral Fellows/P-SPHERE
Program
Sostenibilitat en Biosistemes
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
- ARTICLES CIENTÍFICS [2503]
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/