Articles
SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGIES FOR MODELING POSTHARVEST CHAINS
Systems approaches were used for developing diagrams to describe the functions of each business and their interactions with each other.
Diagrams were developed for; consumers, retail stores, restaurants, warehouses, fresh cut processors, truckers, packers, and growers.
Each diagram showed the six to eight major act ivies of that business.
Some of the interactions among the businesses were also identified.
The concept of postharvest chains had previously emerged at the University of Georgia as the best way to visualize systems for providing consumers with fresh fruit and vegetables.
Each business can be viewed as a link in the chain from consumer to grower.
Money and information on quality requirements flow from the consumer to the grower.
Product flows in the opposite direction with increasing value at each link.
This paper also presents a visual model of a postharvest chain showing: links as businesses; arrows for the flows of information, money, product, and value; and arrows representing interactions with organizations such as banks, suppliers, and research institutions.
The boundary around the chain is a dotted line because a systems approach shows that chains of businesses for delivering fresh produce do not meet the requirements to be considered a system.
Recognizing that food chains are not systems helps to understand why it is difficult to make changes that promise to reduce losses or improve the quality of products available to consumers.
A change typically cost money and there is no authority outside the chain that can require the transfer of funds from the link that benefits to the link that made the investment.
Similarly, it is difficult to obtain research funding to improve the chain because there is normally not a funding source that takes responsibility for all the links.
Thus, research tends to focus on improving only one business link.