Agent-based modelling as a time machine to assess nutrient cycling reorganization during past agrarian transitions in West Africa

Grillot, Myriam; Vayssières, Jonathan; Massé, Dominique

doi:10.1016/j.agsy.2018.04.008

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Alternative use of crop biomass as animal feed is not guaranteed as it depends on yield and often competes with other on-farm needs (Parthasarathy Rao and Hall, 2003). However, several studies assessed how to efficiently allocate these resources to balance healthy croplands and livestock nutrition (Naudin et al, 2015;Grillot et al, 2018;Berre et al, 2021). Growing fodder crops on cropland competes with food for human consumption.…”

Section: Problems and Pressures Addressed By The Integrated Crop-live...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The adoption of technologies to close the labor gap and to improve farm efficiency was identified as a strategy to improve MFS; however, there is generally poor adoption of technologies by farmers. There is a need to identify appropriate niches for technology development and interventions to improve adoption (Jabbar, 1993;Grillot et al, 2018). Decision support tools were identified as potential solutions to improve decision-making in farm design and managing Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems 11 frontiersin.org limited resources for greater economic returns and land conservation (Giller et al, 2011;Naudin et al, 2015).…”

Section: Strategies Proposed Interventions References Feed Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Status of integrated crop-livestock research in the mixed farming systems of the Global South: a scoping study

Mabhaudhi,

Chibarabada,

Sikka

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Mixed farming systems (MFS) are the main food source and exist across almost all agroecological regions in the Global South. A systematic scoping review was conducted to identify the status of integrated crop-livestock research in MFS of the Global South. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol was used to identify 210 studies (excluding reviews) addressing productivity, resilience, challenges, opportunities, and perceptions of integrating crops and livestock in the Global South from the Scopus and Web of Science database. Publication details, problem statement, experimental details and research outcomes of each study were extracted into an MS. Excel sheet. Descriptive methods such as frequency counting and the word frequency cloud were used to analyze the data and identify emerging themes. Integrated crop-livestock research was mostly conducted in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia and not much from North Africa and the Caribbean. The integrated research has been focused on farm production of human food and animal feed by smallholder farmers and soil productivity. Maize was the most dominant crop, while for livestock, it was sheep and cattle. The integrated crop-livestock research seeked to address various challenges, including the growing demand for food and fodder, water scarcity, land scarcity and degradation, climate change, disease outbreaks and social changes. The review summarized proposed strategies and approaches to improve the efficiency of MFS in the Global South. Under the current challenges, feed quality and supply can be improved through adoption of high biomass, climate smart and improved drought-tolerant fodder crops. Using crop residues incorporated in crop fields for improved soil organic matter and controlled grazing were some strategies suggested for land rehabilitation. Building the resilience of smallholder farmers in MFS can be done through diversification and ensuring access to information, markets and finance. Policies that promote the business component, i.e., markets, training, gender equality, private investments, tenure systems and technology adoption were identified for the sustainability of MFS. There is need for research that integrates crop-livestock systems and natural resource management innovations and that evaluates sustainable intensification strategies to meet productivity goals without compromising social and ecological outcomes in MFS.

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Section: Problems and Pressures Addressed By The Integrated Crop-live...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Strategies Proposed Interventions References Feed Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Status of integrated crop-livestock research in the mixed farming systems of the Global South: a scoping study

Mabhaudhi,

Chibarabada,

Sikka

2023

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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“…At present, a relatively small number of studies have applied agent based modelling to agro food systems, and typically focus on specific system components. For example, past agent based modelling has been applied to the study of environmental changes in farming systems (Acosta Michlik and Espaldon, 2008;Murray Rust et al, 2011;Schreinemachers and Berger, 2011); agricultural markets and policies (Bert et al, 2015;Schouten et al, 2014); land use change (Groeneveld et al, 2017;Le et al, 2010); agricultural water management (Becu et al, 2003;Gaudou et al, 2014); urban and agricultural waste man agement (Bichraoui et al, 2013;Courdier et al, 2002;Xu et al, 2016); and smallholders farming, rural livelihoods and self sufficiency (Iwamura et al, 2014;Magliocca et al, 2013;Villamor et al, 2014;Grillot et al, 2018). To our knowledge, agent based models have not yet been applied to simulate material flows across a broader range of components in agro food networks, including multiple agents and ma terials.…”

Section: Purposementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Understanding how multi agent behavior affects materials exchange is key to identify the drivers and dynamics of agro food networks. Although agent based models related to agricultural systems and nu trient management already exist (Grillot et al, 2018;Iwamura et al, 2014;Schreinemachers and Berger, 2011), to our knowledge FAN is the first model that combines social simulation with the environmental characteristics of farms across a wide range of materials in more com plex agro food networks. Therefore, one of the core innovations of FAN lies in its ability to simultaneously simulate multiple bio sourced and biomass materials as a network of local potential exchanges.…”

Section: Fan Originalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Flows in Agro-food Networks (FAN): An agent-based model to simulate local agricultural material flows

Fernández-Mena

Gaudou

Pellerin³

et al. 2020

Agricultural Systems

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Agro-food networks are characterized by complex material exchanges among farms, processors, consumers, and waste managers involved in fertilization, food, feed and bioenergy production. Better coordination of material exchanges at the local scale can facilitate more efficient resource use. Here, we present a new agent-based model, "Flows in Agro-food Networks" (FAN), which simulates the processing and exchange of fertilizers, feed, food and wastes among farms and multiple upstream or downstream partners (feed and fertilizer suppliers, food industries, waste processors, and anaerobic digesters) in small farming regions. FAN includes a series of environmental indicators that can be used to assess alternative scenarios in terms of ecosystem services, nutrient cycling, and resource autonomy. We use a French case study to demonstrate FAN's dynamics and to explore the sensitivity of key parameters. We show a strong influence of spatial distance between agents, their disposition to exchange, and their preference for specific materials on local agro-food network simulations. FAN is powerful theoretical tool to explore and assess opportunities for a circular economy in small farming regions and to unravel interactions between recycling, environmental performance and food production.

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“…For example, characterizing the agro-food system as a network of interacting agents can help to represent alternative scenarios of biomass materials management. Although there is a large literature on agent-based models applied to land use systems (Matthews et al, 2007), very few studies have applied agent based simulations to study alternative scenarios of materials management in agrofood systems at the local scale (Gaube et al, 2009;Bichraoui et al, 2013;Grillot et al, 2018). To our knowledge, agentbased models have not been used yet to simulate alternative scenarios of material exchanges concerning crops, livestock, wastes, and bioenergy all together.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Co-benefits and Trade-Offs From Agro-Food System Redesign for Circularity: A Case Study With the FAN Agent-Based Model

Fernández-Mena

MacDonald

Pellerin

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Food Syst.

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Realizing more sustainable food, feed, and bioenergy systems will require interventions such as increased recycling of nutrients and coordination of biomass flows among farms. Innovative tools to explore the co-benefits and trade-offs of improving flow circularity in agro-food systems at different scales are needed to better understand the efficacy of these sustainability solutions. Here, we applied the FAN ("Flows in Agro-food Networks") agent-based model to simulate contrasting scenarios of material flows locally in a small farming region of France. These scenarios aim to enhance: (1) best management practices at the farm scale; (2) organic material recycling and biogas production collectively across the agricultural landscape; and (3) system redesign toward complete local circularity through crop and livestock symbiosis, fewer livestock, and elimination of external inputs. Scenario simulation outcomes are assessed in terms of their degree of circularity and food production. We find that best management practices at the farm scale and collective solutions for recycling (organic fertilization and anaerobic digestion) substantially improved the degree of circularity by tightening the local nitrogen (N) cycle without affecting food production. Among other co-benefits, changes in farm rotations to feed livestock locally increased the degree of circularity without appreciably impacting food production. The maximum circularity scenario showed considerable potential to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, however, they involved large trade-offs with food production that were even more pronounced with fewer livestock animals. Although regulating livestock numbers combined with eliminating chemical fertilizers was the most effective at mitigating GHG emissions, when applied simultaneously it substantially impacted food and bioenergy production. Such trade-offs for soil fertility demonstrate the importance of coupling crops and livestock for reaching self-sufficient circular systems. Our study illustrates how the FAN agent-based model can be applied to account for multiple types of interactions involved in transitions toward circularity in local agro-food systems, including the potential for co-benefits, and unintended consequences of interventions.

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Agent-based modelling as a time machine to assess nutrient cycling reorganization during past agrarian transitions in West Africa

Cited by 15 publications

References 29 publications

Status of integrated crop-livestock research in the mixed farming systems of the Global South: a scoping study

Status of integrated crop-livestock research in the mixed farming systems of the Global South: a scoping study

Flows in Agro-food Networks (FAN): An agent-based model to simulate local agricultural material flows

Co-benefits and Trade-Offs From Agro-Food System Redesign for Circularity: A Case Study With the FAN Agent-Based Model

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