Applications of location analysis in agriculture: a survey

Abstract

This article presents a survey of applications of operations research-based techniques to location problems in agriculture. From the early work in the field to more recent applications, researchers have successfully applied, adapted, and improved theoretical location models to fulfil the field's specific needs. This article discusses earlier work in agricultural location theory starting with the seminal work by von Thünen. It then introduces diverse and innovative applications of location models from the 1950s and 1960s. The authors then identify distinguishing features of location problems in agriculture, and discuss their impact on the analysis. In order to illustrate these features and the variety of operations research-based applications to agricultural location, the article turns to six real-world examples. It then considers, in Conclusion, some of the directions that agricultural location theory may take in the future.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• location
• allocation
• practice of OR

Acknowledgements

We thank the Food and Agribusiness Program at the University of Illinois for providing partial funding for this research.