Designing a bi-objective rice supply chain considering environmental impacts under uncertainty

Rice is a strategic commodity in the food chain for the people and governments. It is a fundamental food for many societies. Moreover, producing rice can provide a reliable source of revenue if proper supply chain management is coordinated by farmer countries. The rice supply chain includes diverse elements such as farms, rice mills, distribution centers, and markets. This study examines the important factors that play a significant role in the rice supply chain. A bi-objective mathematical model is formulated to minimize total costs as an economic goal and minimize soil erosion and its destruction due to the consumed water for rice cultivation as an environmental goal. To verify the proposed model, a case study of the rice supply chain with limited producer farms has been investigated. Moreover, some parameters such as annual precipitation in production areas along with other factors are presented under several scenarios. Furthermore, an extended goal programming approach and stochastic programming are utilized to solve the proposed model. Finally, the sensitivity analyses of the important parameters have been performed.