Intl. Conference on Economics, Finance & Business, Paris

ASSESSING AGRO-FOOD WASTE VALORIZATION CHALLENGES AND SOLUTIONS CONSIDERING SMART TECHNOLOGIES: AN INTEGRATED FERMATEAN FUZZY MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION-MAKING APPROACH

QING ZHANG

Abstract:

With the growth of worldwide population and depletion of natural resources, the sustainable development of food system can’t be ignored. The demand for agro-food waste valorization practices like functional food and high-value compounds production has received widespread attention; however, numerous challenges still exist. The present study aims to identify those challenges of agro-food waste valorization and propose effective solutions based on smart technologies. Based on a systematic literature review, the study combs existing approaches of the agro-food waste valorization and constructs a six-dimension conceptual model of agro-food waste valorization challenges. Moreover, the study integrates Fermatean fuzzy set (FFS) with multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods including Best-Worst Method (BWM), Decision-making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory-Interpretative Structural Modeling Method (DEMATEL-ISM), and Quality Function Deployment (QFD) to evaluate the weights of each dimension, find causal interrelationships among the challenges and fundamental challenges, and rank the potential smart solutions. Finally, the results indicate the "organizational" dimension is the severest challenge and point out several primary challenges in agro-food waste valorization. Besides, the most potential smart solution is the establishment of smart infrastructure for agro-food waste collection system, which may help government and related practitioners manage agro-food waste efficiently and also facilitate circular economy. In this study, there are two main innovations. First, the study investigates agro-food waste valorization strategies from the perspective of smart technologies comprehensively; second, the combination of FFS and BWM, DEMATEL-ISM, and QFD is applied in this filed.

Keywords: agro-food waste valorization; smart technology; Fermatean fuzzy set; BWM; DEMATEL-ISM; QFD