A framework for designing symbiotic simulation decision support systems for horticultural supply chains involving smallholder farmers

Horticulture is one of the important components of Indonesia’s economy that come from the agricultural sector. However, many challenges are encountered in the development of horticultural supply chains (HSCs) in Indonesia. One of them is the lack of production planning that suits the market demand. This results in inefficiency, high food losses and price fluctuation. HSCs systems are complex, especially in developing countries like Indonesia in which many smallholders are involved. Concerning this situation, ICT-based approaches have been widely proposed to integrate planning along supply chains. One of the approaches is a symbiotic simulation that enables a close association between the real system and simulation system. Symbiotic simulation is designed to support decision-makers to plan their activities using the real/near real-time data generated by the real systems as the inputs. However, how this system model can be used in HSC systems involving many smallholders is still a question. This paper proposes a framework to design decision support symbiotic simulations for HSC systems involving smallholders. The framework is designed based on the literature study on symbiotic simulation and agricultural supply chains in developing countries. In this framework, four activities in the HSCs are considered: 1) production; 2) post-production; 3) logistics, and 4) market. This framework can be used by farmer organisations or agricultural companies that have partnerships with smallholders to plan their activities along their supply chains.