45

American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 7(2): 45-49, 2013

ISSN 1995-0748

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Optimizing Fertilizer Compounds and Minimizing the Cost of Cucumber Production
using the Goal Programming Approach
Nasruddin Hassan, Khairil Bariyyah Hassan, Siti Salmiah Yatim and Siti Aminah Yusof
School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600
UKM Bangi, Selangor DE, Malaysia
Nasruddin Hassan, Khairil Bariyyah Hassan, Siti Salmiah Yatim and Siti Aminah Yusof: Optimizing
Fertilizer Compounds and Minimizing the Cost of Cucumber Production using the Goal Programming
Approach
ABSTRACT
Cucumber is a family of Cucurbitaceae which is one of the favourite vegetables consumed in Malaysia. A
study was conducted to maximize cucumber production and minimize the total cost of fertilizer used to plant
cucumber by using the goal programming approach. Five different fertilizers having different combination of
Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) were analysed.The result indicated that the fertilizer that would
optimize nutrients and minimize the total cost of cucumber production are NPK Biasa and NPK Green
consisting of 80 kg/ha of Nitrogen, 75 kg/ha of Phosphorus and 60 kg/ha of Potassium.
Key words: Cucumber; fertilizer; goal programming; optimal solution
Introduction
Cucumber is a family of Cucurbitaceae which is one of the favorite vegetables in Malaysia.Cucumber
production in Malaysia for the year 2002 was 43,389.05 metric tons. In 2003, the local market size in Malaysia
for cucumber was 37,744 metric tons which was 0.098% of the world market size. Cucumbers from Malaysia
are exported to Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia (Ministry of Agriculture, 2013).A good combination of
fertilizers is needed to produce good quality of cucumber.
NPK fertilizer is an organic fertilizer containing three different compounds, namelynitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). NPK has positive effect on growth and yield of cucumber as it enhances
cucumber production. Amongst different levels of NPK, application of NPK:100-50-50 kg ha-1was one of the
suggested application for getting maximum production of cucumber per hectare (Jilani et al., 2009).
Goal programming is one of the models which have been developed to deal with the multiple objectives
decision-making problems (Sen and Nandi, 2012). The increasing popularity of goal programming and
usefulness for decision-making policies has been aimed at optimizing agricultural land and other natural
resources (Hassan and Mohammad Basir, 2009; Hassan and Sahrin, 2012; Hassan and Abdul Halim, 2012;
Hassan and Ayop, 2012; Hassan and Loon, 2012; Hassan et al., 2012a; Hassan et al., 2012b).
Previously, Leung and Ng (2007) used a preemptive goal programming model for production planning
where three objectives are optimized hierarchically while Nja and Udofia (2009) formulated a mixed-integer
goal programming model for a flour producing company based on production times of three products.
Meanwhile Kopanos et al. (2011) developed a mixed discrete/continuous-time mixed-integer linear
programming model for resource-constrained production planning in semicontinuous food industries.
Methodology:
The canonical form of goal programming (Hassan and Sahrin, 2012) can be written as:
Minimize

subject to
Corresponding Author: Nasruddin Hassan, School of Mathematical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 UKM Bangi, Selangor DE, Malaysia
E-mail: nas@ukm.my

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Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric. 7(2): 45-49, 2013

such that
where
priority level for each goal
weight for each decision variable
aspiration level for the

goal

underachievement variable for the

goal

overachievement variable for the

goal

Model formulation:
Decision variables
fertilizer content (n= 1, 2, , 5) (kg/ha)
Coefficients and constants
unit cost for fertilizer
(n= 1, 2, , 5) (RM/kg)
content of nutrient

in fertilizer

upper limit of nutrient

(%)

in fertilizer (kg/ha)

lower limit of nutrient

in fertilizer (kg/ha)

Total fertilizer cost (RM)

Constraints:
1) Total cost should be less or equal than estimates

which becomes

allowing for deviations whilst minimizing

2) Lower limit of nutrients to avoid damage to fruits

which becomes
for

and

allowing for deviations whilst minimizing

3) Upper limits of nutrients to ensure normal growth of fruits

which becomes

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Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric. 7(2): 45-49, 2013

for
allowing for deviations whilst minimizing

and
.

Model Application:
There are 5 decision variables in the fertilizer content to be considered where
fertilizer i per hectare.
Table 1: Fertilizer of cucumber plantation
i
Fertilizer
1
2
3
4
5

NPK Soluble
NPK Biasa
NPK Blue
NPK Green
Potassium Chloride

N
(%)
14
14
12
15
0

(%)
6
6
12
15
0

Table 2: Lower limit and upper limit compound of NPK fertilizer

Compound of fertilizer
Lower limit
(kg/ha)
Nitrogen (N)
80
Phosphorus (P)
75
Potassium (K)
60

is the mass in kg of

(%)
28
28
17
15
61

Price
(RM / kg)
6.40
2.00
2.30
2.20
1.90

Upper limit
(kg/ha)
140
125
120

Construction of goal programming model:

Cost estimate of fertilizer
Lower limits of N-P-K

Upper limit of N-P-K

Priority Structure:
The deviation variables to be minimized are prioritized as follows: first

, second

, and

third
. The highest-priority goal is to minimize the overachievement of total cost in fertilizer
combination, the second-priority goal is to minimize underutilization of the lower limit of nutrients, while the
third priority goal is to minimize the overutilization of the upper limit of nutrients. This can be structured as:
P1: Minimize the total cost goal in fertilizer combination; Minimize
P2: Minimize underutilization of the lower limit of nutrients; Minimize
P3: Minimize overutilization of the upper limit of nutrients; Minimize
Results and Discussion
The problem has been executed using GP software package in LINDO 6.1. The priority achievements
corresponding to the optimum decision are displayed in Table 3.

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Am.-Eurasian J. Sustain. Agric. 7(2): 45-49, 2013

Table 3: Priority Achievement

Priorities
P1
P2
P3

Description
Minimize the total cost goal infertilizer content
Minimize underutilization of the lowerlimit of nutrients
Minimize over utilization of the upperlimit of nutrients

Achievement
Achieved
Achieved
Achieved

The corresponding optimal solution is found to be as follows.

X = (0.00, 62.5, 0.00, 475, 0.00),
= (0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 28.75, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00), and
= (3830.00, 0.00, 0.00, 0.00, 60.00, 50.00, 31.25)
The solution of
and
implies that two types of fertilizers, that is, 62.5 kg/ha of
NPK Biasa and 475 kg/ha of NPK Green should be used in planting cucumber. The compounds applied would
be 80 kg/ha of nitrogen, 75 kg/ha of phosphorus and 88.75 kg/ha of potassium as can be inferred from the values
and
.
of
The highest-priority goal to minimize the overachievement of the total cost in fertilizer combination was
achieved when
is 0 and the total cost is reduced by
which is RM 3830 from RM 5000 to RM 1270.00
kg/ha.The second-priority goal to minimize underutilization of the lower limit of nutrients was also achieved
when
and
are all zeros. Finally, the third-priority goal to minimize the overutilization of the upper
limit of nutrients was also achieved when the positive deviation variables

and

are all zeros.

Conclusion:
This study attempts to deal with the nutrient management problem of cucumber using the goal
programming model. The fertilizers cost is found to be significantly reduced. The objectives of optimizing
fertilizer compounds and minimizing the cost of cucumber production using the goal programming approach
were successful. Hence, this goal programming approach is useful for agricultural planners to guide farmers in
reducing the cost of production thereby increasing their profits. The work on cucumber production based on
nutrient management can be further extended to other vegetables.
Acknowledgement
We are indebted to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for funding this research under the grant UKM-GUP2011-159.
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