Agricultural food supply chains of different grains such as wheat, rice, and corn include several processes from cropping and harvesting to distribution. Integrating these processes to reduce costs, in addition to providing sufficient supply, are of the major goals of agri-food supply chain management. Rice is an important grain that constitutes an important part of people's diets throughout the world. FAO predicts that global rice utilization would increase over the next few years. Considering rice's importance, in this paper, a mixed-integer linear mathematical model for designing and planning of rice supply chain is proposed which aims to maximize total profit by integrating different decisions of the rice supply chain including supplier selection, cropping, fertilizing, pest control, harvesting, milling, transportation, and distribution. This model considers different rice varieties and takes into account irrigation water requirements of crops and available water resources. A case study of Iran farmlands in Gilan province is employed to show the applicability and advantages of the proposed model for the rice supply chain. Results indicate that increasing conversion ratio of paddy to rice and reducing labor costs would have a significant impact on the total profit of the supply chain. .

Agri-food supply chains include several processes, from cropping and harvesting to distribution. Integrating these processes to reduce costs and environmental impact and providing sufficient supply are the main goals of agri-food supply chain management. Rice, a so-called staple food, makes up a significant portion of the human diet worldwide. Due to the importance of rice, this paper proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model for rice supply chain design and planning that considers economic, environmental, and social dimensions. This model determines the optimal strategic and tactical decisions in the rice supply chain, including cropping pattern, supplier selection, and the location and capacity of new milling centers with parboiling technology. The model considers different rice varieties and irrigation water requirements of crops. Also, it investigates the benefits of renting as well as offering a partnership agreement to independent farmers. A case study of Iran farmlands is employed to show the applicability and advantages of the proposed model for the rice supply chain. To solve the proposed multi-objective model, the ɛ -constraint method is applied. The results indicate that opening milling centers with parboiling technology is profitable for the supply chain. Moreover, entering a partnership agreement is much more profitable than renting farmlands.