Supply Chain for Fertilizer Distribution in Ethiopia

Abstract

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) is the leading humanitarian organization in the world, with yearly operations in 80 different countries, providing humanitarian assistance to over 80million people in need. The WFP has been assisting the government of Ethiopia through humanitarian relief aid, which includes relief food support. Recently, the logistics team at the WFP has been helping the Ethiopian Agricultural Business Corporation (EABC) with their fertilizer distribution supply chain.This paper is the first attempt to mathematically model Ethiopia’s fertilizer distribution network. This paper uses a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model that optimizes fertilizer distribution costs and the satisfaction of fertilizer demand. The paper describes how optimization techniques and analysis are used to determine the limiting effects of fertilizer handling capacities at warehouses and ports, and total fertilizer supply in Ethiopia’s current supply chain.