29 pages, Agent-based models are important tools for simulating farmers’ behaviour in response to changing environmental, economic or institutional conditions and policies. This article introduces an agent-based modelling approach that combines behavioural factors with standard bio-economic modelling of agricultural production. More specifically, our framework integrates the cumulative prospect theory and social interactions with constrained optimisation decisions in agricultural production. We apply our modelling approach to an exemplary bio-economic model on the assessment of weed control decisions. Results show the effects of heterogeneous farm decision-making and social networks on mechanical weed control and herbicide use. This framework provides a generic and conceptually sound approach to improve the scope for representing farmers’ decision-making and allows the simulation of their decisions and recent advances in behavioural economics to be aligned with existing bio-economic models of agricultural systems.
9 pages, The article investigates whether the social network based program (SNP) in villages can encourage learning and adoption of a relatively new cash crop, cotton, to female heads of households. It explains how social network based training program had more significant effects on yields for the poorest performing farmers than the standard training program, and proves that SNP can increase productivity up to 50 percent for farmers producing at the average yield of production.
Sligo, F.X. (author), Massey, Claire (author), and Department of Communication and Journalism, Massey University
Massey University, New Zealand Centre for SME Research
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2007-04
Published:
Elsevier
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 16 Document Number: D10440
13 pages., Via online journal., This study reports on New Zealand dairy farmers’ access to and use of information as mediated through conditions of risk and trust within the context of their interpersonal social networks. We located participants’ reports of their information use within their perceived environments of trust and risk, following Giddens's [1990. The consequences of modernity. Polity Press, Stanford, CA] typology of trust and risk in pre-modernity and modernity. The research participants were constant users of interpersonal and print information from numerous sources, and monitored their incoming data in the light of strategic needs, reflecting their roles as both farming practitioners and business owners. Socio-spatial knowledge networks (SSKNs) combine individuals’ explanatory cognitive models of information acquisition and use with a micro-geographical analysis of their interpersonal networks. The participants showed characteristics of pre-modern, modern and even post-modern society in respect of their use of complex interactional forms, as well as a blending of individualistic and communitarian practices and concerns in their professional and personal lives.
