Application of multicriteria analysis for assessment of wheat quality in trade and processing

Abstract

The quality related value of grains, especially wheat is defined with a number of quality parameters. Numerous parameters that are often mutually inconsistent result in the fact that decision making related to selection of wheat lots based on their quality is a complex multidimensional problem. The aim of the research was to test the possibility of application of multicriteria analysis for ranking of wheat lots in respect to their overall quality and its variation. A modified version of the preference ranking organisation method for enrichment evaluation, MODIPRIM, was used for multicriteria analysis of wheat intended for sales and processing purposes. The results of determining the quality parameters of wheat lots in six consequent crop years were used to form the input database. Multicriteria analysis was conducted with developed optimisation criteria and assessment of the significance coefficients resulted in a reduction of the complexity of the decision making problem involving numerous quality parameters to the differentiation of observed wheat crops based only on their quality level and variability with simultaneous possibility of wheat alternative evaluation in respect of defined final purpose. Newly introduced cubic and square preference functions in MODIPROM method gave the best fits for multicriteria ranking of the supplied input data, emphasizing its suitability for tested purposes. © 2014 Wageningen Academic Publishers.