Multiple-criteria decision-making techniques and their role in livestock ration formulation

The livestock ration formulation problem is postulated within the framework of multiple-criteria decision-making techniques. This exercise is motivated by the fact that the ordinary least-cost approach can, and does, generate solutions that either cannot be implemented or supply nutritionally undesirable levels of various nutrients. This originates from using cost as the criterion for selecting the ingredients of the diet. But in fact, diet formulation problems involve several criteria and should, therefore, be solved using techniques designed for modelling such problems. This paper is an attempt at introducing these techniques to agricultural systems modellers and then demonstrating their use in livestock ration formulation. The multiple-criteria decision-making techniques covered include goal programming and its variants such as weighted and lexicographic approaches and multiple-objective programming.