Optimizing the storage and transportation of wheat in developing countries

The storage and transportation of wheat in developing countries often creates significant quantity and quality losses. To minimize these losses, wheat storage and transportation need to be carefully analyzed and optimized. This article presents the development of an optimization model that provides the capability of minimizing the total wheat storage and transportation cost including the total storage cost throughout the entire network of villages, local markets, and regional locations; the total storage losses costs caused by quantity and quality losses in all storage facilities; the total transportation cost throughout the entire network; and the total transportation losses costs suffered during wheat transportation throughout the network. The optimization model is implemented using linear programming. A case study is presented to illustrate the use of the developed model and demonstrate its capabilities in minimizing both the total cost of wheat storage in an existing network of storage facilities and the total cost of its transportation between these facilities. These new capabilities contribute to minimizing wheat losses during its storage and transportation while minimizing its storage and transportation costs throughout the entire network of storage facilities, and enable decision-makers to identify needed upgrades of existing storage facilities and/or transportation routes.