Location of farm advisory officers in New Zealand : an application of facility location analysis

Abstract

This study is concerned with the problem of providing farm advisory services to New Zealand farmers. Its aim is to determine a number of acceptable sets of locations for farm advisory officers, who are employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to service farmers. In doing so the facilities which are to be spatially located are the offices from which the advisors operate. The location plans produced by this research apply to the year 1977. The paper is divided into three sections. Firstly the system of providing farm advisory services is described and the problem of locating farm advisory officers throughout the country is defined in detail. Then follows an explanation of the model which was used to represent the system and of the methodology which was applied to the model in order to solve the problem. Finally, the results produced by the solution technique are presented and are evaluated by comparing them with a plan put forward by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. The study also incorporates the examination of a number of policy alternatives.