The academic of the UFRO held a lecture on horticultural production in uncertain conditions at the National University of La Plata (Universidad de La Plata) in Argentina.

Within the framework of his participation in an international research project that mainly aims at improving decision-making processes in horticultural production in uncertain conditions, Dr. Jorge Hernandez, an academic of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO), held a lecture at the National University of La Plata (Universidad de La Plata), Argentina.

The current challenges and methodology used for the survey of requirements associated with the optimization of different horticultural processes were part of his presentation before the Unit of Agricultural Sciences of the University of La Plata, representatives of development and agricultural entities of the city, as well as members of the Argentinian Ministry of Agriculture.

"One of the main aspects we are working on in this international research project has to do with the modeling of decision-making processes in the horticultural chain, in which both, farmers, companies and government bodies, are involved. We are not carrying out this study with an agronomic approach, but rather from the point of view of the optimization of the value chain, which is what concerns us as Industrial Engineers, and what I shared in my presentation today is part of what we have done so far,” Dr. Hernandez, an academic who teaches Logistics and Operations Management at the UFRO, said.

RUC-APS PROJECT

Chile, Argentina, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Poland are the countries involved in this project called “Enhancing and implementing Knowledge based ICT solutions within high Risk and Uncertain Conditions for Agriculture Production Systems (RUC-APS)”.

In the context of the Horizon 2020 program, the objective of this project is to promote the development of research and knowledge transfer in the horticultural sector, where the exchange of inter and multidisciplinary experts for research and innovation favors the development of a standard proposal of methodologies and decision support solutions in uncertain conditions for farmers.

"My intention is to involve the Universidad de La Frontera in this and other similar projects, since we can contribute from my field of research, as well as others, to the development of research on problems that are common all over the world," emphasized Dr. Jorge Hernández, who, together with Elizabeth Kher, a researcher at INIA (Agricultural Research Institute), collaborates in the RUC-APS project.