The fruit production in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) is slowly returning to normality after Balkan wars. Due to favorable climatic and soil conditions it represents a clear business opportunity for family farms. The decision which fruit species/variety to grow is a complex decision and should be made on the basis of sound empirical analysis. This paper presents a multi criteria model for planning and decision making on fruit farms in BIH. The model combines financial cost benefit analysis and multi attribute decision making methodology based on expert system DEX-i. In the first stage the technological and financial cost benefit analysis were conducted for each fruit production alternative. The results were further evaluated with expert system DEX-i considering all possible criteria influencing the fruit grower decision. In the case of a sample family farm the plum yielded with best multi criteria evaluation, followed by apple and pear, while sour cherry gave unsatisfactory outcome.

Key words: cost benefit analysis, fruit production, multi attribute decision modeling, expert system DEX - i

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