Project's Activities

19th to 23rd August 2019 - Second visit of UK researchers to Brazil

Following the last visit of Brazilian researchers to Scotland, the Scottish side of the team (Andrea Tuni and Athanasios Rentizelas) visited Brazil for the second time from 19^th to 23^rd August 2019, which constituted the last scheduled “Working Together” week. The Scottish team was joined also by researchers Paulo Nocera Alves Junior and Isotilia Costa Melo from University of Sao Paulo, Jose Carlos Alvarez Merino from the Peruvian University of Applied Science and Yoshiaqui Shimbo from UFSCar, with a total of ten researchers taking part to the working week planned by the UFG team.

Key activities included the visit to the settlement of Canudos to discuss the progress made by the research team and validate with the farmers the developed decision support models in order to grasp the opinions of the intended users as well as the planning of the final steps of the project, including publications and the development of an app to make the models easy-to-use for the farmers. Moreover, the 1^st Seminar of School Feeding and Family Agriculture was held on 22^nd August, bringing to UFG around a hundred attendees representing the various stakeholders involved in the PNAE process, including politicians, school administrators and nutritionists as well as family farmers.

 

22^nd to 26^th July 2019 - Third visit of Brazilian researchers to Scotland

Five Brazilian researchers part of the BRASCO research group (Helio Fuchigami, Marcelo Nunes, Maico Severino, Julio Valandro and Lie Yamanaka) visited the University of Strathclyde from 22^nd to 26^th July 2019. The last “Working Together” week to be held in Scotland was centred on the advancement of the research project, with a particular focus on the update of the decision support models for smallholder farmers. The first model, aiming to support farmers in the bidding decisions, was finalised, whereas the second one, supporting the distribution of the produce, is close to completion. As the project is reaching its final stages, upcoming publication of research findings was planned and funding opportunities for further research collaborations are now being explored.  

 

15^th to 17^th July 2019 - International Joint Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IJCIEOM)

The BRASCO team presented four pieces of work at the 25^th International Joint Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IJCIEOM) held in Novi Sad, Serbia from 15^th to 17^th July. Each presentation was based on a conference paper. The papers, which were successfully accepted for publication in the conference proceedings, following a peer-review process, cover all areas of research the team is currently working on. These include decision support systems for smallholder farmers as well as softer aspects related to the challenges farmers are facing to commercialise their produce and access to PNAE program. 

The following pieces of work were presented at the conference:

• “A Data Envelopment Approach to support the bid/no-bid decision of smallholder farmers on public calls participation”, co-authored by Nocera Alves P. J., Costa Melo I., Severino M. R., Yamanaka L., Tuni A., Rentizelas A., and presented by Yamanaka L.
• “A Decision Support Model for Assisting Smallholder Farmers on Bidding to Supply to Institutional Markets”, co-authored by Fuchigami H., Barbosa Q. L., Severino M. R., Rentizelas A., Tuni A., and presented by Fuchigami H.
• “Supporting Product Distribution Decisions of Smallholder Farmers”, co-authored by Rentizelas A., Severino M. R., Fuchigami H., Tuni A., Costa Melo I., and presented by Tuni A.
• “Smallholder Farmers Challenges to Supply Institutional Markets: a case study”, co-authored by Yamanaka L., Oliveira M. R., Severino M. R., Tuni A., Valandro Soares J. C., and presented by Severino M. R.

The conference offered a stimulating discussion about the conducted work and its contribution to solidarity economy as well as interesting feedback for future steps in the research project.

 

23^rd to 26^th June EURO 2019 Conference

The BRASCO team presented three pieces of work at the prestigious 30^th European Conference on Operational Research (EURO) held in Dublin, Ireland from 23^rd to 26^th June. The presentations were delivered within the special session, entitled “Operational Research Applications for Solidarity Economy, which was part of the broader stream of “Operational Research for Development and Developing Countries”.

The following pieces of work were presented:

• “Supporting decisions of smallholder farmers on public calls participation in Brazil: A Data Envelopment Analysis approach”, co-authored by Nocera Alves P. J., Costa Melo I., Severino M. R., Yamanaka L., Tuni A., Rentizelas A., and presented by Nocera Alves P. J.
• “Optimization model as a decision support system for participating in public tenders for feeding programs”, co-authored by Fuchigami H., Severino M. R., Rentizelas A., Tuni A., Yamanaka L., and presented by Fuchigami H.
• “Optimising the product distribution decisions for government feeding programs in developing countries”, co-authored by Rentizelas A., Severino M. R., Fuchigami H., Tuni A., Costa Melo I., and presented by Rentizelas A.

The conference offered a stimulating discussion about the conducted work as well as interesting feedback for future steps in the research project.

 

8th of May 2019 - Presentation of the Project at the XXIV National Meeting of Coordinators of Production Engineering Courses (ENCEP) 2019

From 08/05 to 10/05 the UFG of Goiânia received the XXIV ENCEP. The first day of the event was marked by the presence of the BRASCO project team, who had the opportunity to report on the teaching and research experiences of the Production Engineering course. One of the members of the group, Professor Dr. Lie Yamanaka spoke on the subject and at the opportunity spoke about the BRASCO project that aims to support family farmers. An event of great importance for the UFG, it also contributed to consolidate and disseminate the BRASCO project under development.

 

26th of April 2019 - Meeting of the Project Team with the School Feeding Council (CAE) of Goiás

The first meeting with the School Feeding Council (CAE) took place on 04/26/2019. Teachers Maico Roris, Meire Ramalho, Lie Yamanaka and postdoctoral student Mara Miranda, presented the project, reporting the difficulties and needs of small family farmers, as well as identifying possible partnerships with the bodies present at the meeting. In addition to the CAE, the representatives of the School Lunch Management and the State Council of Food and Nutrition Security of the State of Goiás (CONESAN) were also present. The meeting was considered quite productive by all, as ideas and more projects are coming to the support of family farmers and to improve school meals, as far as the PNAE process is concerned.

 

15th of February 2019 - Second visit of Brazilian researchers to Scotland

Three Brazilian researchers part of the research group (Helio Fuchigami, Maico Severino and Lie Yamanaka) visited the University of Strathclyde from 21^st January to 14^th February. The third “Working Together” period was the longest time dedicated to joint research activities scheduled within the project timeframe. A very intense program was put into place: on top of few training sessions, the time was largely dedicated to research tasks, with the team significantly advancing in the development of two decision support models. The first one aims to support farmers in the bidding decisions, in order to evaluate which public calls are economically convenient to attend based on aspects such as production costs, bureaucracy costs, expected income and possibility of being awarded the bids. The second model comes in once the outcome of the bids is known and supports family farmers on the distribution of the produce, identifying schools to be supplied as well as the routing of the vehicles adopted for logistics. Both models are proving to be very interesting to develop given the particular nature of the problem and the context of application. Stay tuned for more updates on the development of both models!

 

10/01/2019 Special session at the EURO 2019 Conference

The BRASCO team is pleased to announce that it has been appointed the organisation of a special session at the prestigious EURO 2019 conference, which is going to be held in Dublin, Ireland, from 23^rd to 26^th June 2019. The special session, entitled “Operational Research Applications for Solidarity Economy” will be part of a wider stream on OR for Developing Countries and Humanitarian Applications.

Solidarity economy is an alternative economic system, which is centred on humans and social relations, rather than on capital. As such, it promotes cooperation against competition, trying to bring together different economic actors and initiatives in a cooperative network. This special issue is thus dedicated to emerging OR research aiming to develop alternative strategies to reduce poverty and unemployment and to promote social innovation to achieve economic and social equity. 

To submit an abstract to the invited session, you are welcomed to visit the abstract submission page at: https://www.euro-online.org/conf/euro30 and use code c1c04d27.

The deadline for abstract submission is on 8^th February 2019. The abstracts must be written in English and contain no more than 1500 characters (no formulas or mathematical notation are allowed), according to the guidelines of the EURO conference. For more information or inquiries about the session, please do not hesitate to contact the session chairs:

• Athanasios Rentizelas, University of Strathclyde, UK arent@mail.ntua.gr
• Hélio Fuchigami, Universidade Federal de Goias, Brazil  heliofuchigami@ufg.br

Stay tuned and do not forget the key dates!

Key Dates:

Abstract submission deadline: 8^th February

Early Registration deadline: 8^th March

Author Registration deadline: 22^nd March

Conference dates: 23^rd-26^th June

We are looking forward to receiving your abstracts and seeing you in Dublin.

 

06/10/2018 Visit of Scottish researchers to Brazil

Following the visit of Brazilian researchers to Scotland, the Scottish side of the team (Andrea Tuni and Athanasios Rentizelas) paid a visit to Brazil from 7^th to 15^th September. The Scottish researchers first met the team from the University of Sao Paolo (USP) in the Brazilian largest city. Later the whole team was warmly hosted by the Federal University of Goias (UFG) for the second “Working Together” week. Overall, nine researchers from the three universities part of the project took part to the intense program set up by the UFG team. Activities involved meeting several academics from the university, knowledge exchange meetings and industry visits. Finally, the team had the chance to visit the settlement of Canudos, where researchers from Scotland and Sao Paolo had the opportunity to meet directly the farmers involved in the project and to better understand the challenges associated with the distribution through the PNAE program, informing the next stages of research.

 

12/08/2018 Visit of Brazilian researchers to Scotland

Five Brazilian researchers part of the research group (Helio Fuchigami, Meire Oliveira, Maico Severino, Julio Valandro and Lie Yamanaka) visited the University of Strathclyde from 6^th to 10^th August. The first “Working Together” week proved to be very fruitful both in terms of work advancement and in terms of team building. Dr Agnessa Shpakova delivered a causal mapping workshop, which helped the team in the brainstorming process to identify key goals and root causes, offering precious information to complement the data collection process in a structured way. A taste of the practical challenges in food distribution was offered thanks to the presentation by Long Lane Deliveries, a leading operator in the chilled and frozen distribution within UK. A series of training sessions along with working sessions on the directions of the project completed an intense and productive week for all participants!

 

01/07/2018 Data collection completed

Following a second visit to the settlement of Canudos at the end of May, the main primary data collection from the farmers is now considered complete. Overall, information was collected from 22 families, which make up a representative sample of the 320 families living overall in the settlement. The data collected consists of an intriguing mix of demographics and statistics about living and farming conditions in the village as well as more in-depth qualitative information about the agricultural activities and distribution practices. The Brazilian team is currently busy in the process of analysing and aggregating the evidence collected in order to inform the development of the models to support Canudos farmers.

 

15/05/2018 Data collection process started

The research group is delighted to announce that the first round of data collection is complete. A group of researchers from Federal University of Goiás, supported by some students of the university, paid a visit to the village of Canudos on 5^th May in order to collect relevant information from the farmers of the village, which are the main stakeholder of the research project. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews in order to expand on more relevant streams of enquiry and to uncover hidden details while collecting the key information from all interviewees. The first round of data collection aimed to identify the benefits the farmers expect to gain from the participation to the project along with other information regarding their agricultural activities and distribution practices. The evidence collected is now being analysed and will be a precious source of information to feed the development of the distribution models to support Canudos farmers.

 

04/04/2018 Project kick-off

The project officially started on 1^st April 2018, with a planned duration of 18 months. The kick-off meeting took place few days later, bringing the group together to lay the foundations of the collaboration between three Brazilian universities (Federal University of Goiás, University of São Paulo and Federal University of Uberlândia. The teleconference meeting offered the opportunity for researchers to meet for the first time with over ten researchers connected simultaneously. The meeting was functional as a starting point of the project to develop a roadmap of future steps. Keep following our news section to receive the latest updates on the project.