GIS spatial optimization for agricultural crop allocation using NSGA-II

Abstract

This study focuses on the shift from traditional farming methods, reliant on farmer intuition and manual processes, to modern, automated approaches crucial for Thailand’s agricultural sustainability. Despite its vital role in the country’s economy, outdated practices lead to supply imbalances and perpetuate poverty among smallholder farmers. Using geographic information systems (GIS) and mathematical optimization, the present study aims to determine optimal agricultural crop allocation. A multi-objective optimization crop spatial allocation model leverages geospatial data, including crop, soil and climate suitability, to enhance the accuracy of our model. Additionally, we incorporate agricultural economics data, such as market price, crop yield, production cost, distances to secondary producers, production budget limitations, and minimum crop production requirements. To speedup the convergence of the algorithm, we introduce more suitable crossover and mutation operators in NSGA-II, aiming to direct the search towards the Pareto optimal solutions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in a case study of the agricultural area in Chiang Mai province, Thailand, focusing on three major industrial crops: corn, cane, and rice. Our model suggests land allocation that adheres to both the budget constraint and the minimum production requirements, while retaining only a small surplus for each crop. The successful implementation of this approach in our case study marks a significant advancement in Thai agricultural research, paving the way for long-term economic and environmental sustainability.