Application of linguistic/non-numeric fuzzy aggregation to the ranking of processed crops

Abstract

A non-numeric fuzzy aggregation approach is applied for the fusion of information obtained from farmers and experts for evaluation and selection of alternatives under multiple criteria. The technique has the ability to assign linguistic variable to fused information and find consensus of gathered opinions from a number of experts on crop processing for each processed crop. The technique is illustrated with a crop processing problem by adding value to the crop and increase income to entrepreneurs. The proposed technique has been successfully applied to the ranking of the processed crops based on the expert’s opinions, thus obtaining best preferences based on product, technology, marketing, and customer satisfaction. Five crops, namely beans, maize, rosella, sunflower and rice were ranked. Out of the five ranked crops, two processed crops (maize and sunflower) obtained high ranking.

Keywords: Linguistic variables, Fuzzy aggregation, Processed crops, Decision making