Das Projekt "G 1.1: Assessment of Innovations and Sustainable Strategies" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Landwirtschaftliche Betriebslehre durchgeführt. Farm households, whose living standard largely depend on the successful management of natural resources, have a low per capita income and are in danger of further impoverishment due to unsustainable resource management. Investigations in the first phase confirmed the hypothesis. A great number of farms were analyzed and clustered in representative types in both countries. Sustainability was measured using a sustainability index, which indicates tremendous environmental effects and variation between individual farms and ethnic groups.Sub-project G1.1 will follow three major tasks. The first is to evaluate sustainability strategies on the farm and farming system level, as it was done in the previous phase, but on the basis of a significantly extended data base. The second is to aggregate farm household data to the regional level. For this, a comparative-static approach is chosen. The third is to develop a multi-agent-based simulation model. Multi-agent simulation models (MAS) as well as GIS-tools are gaining increasing importance as tools for simulating future agriculture resource use, since they allow the integration of a wide range of different stakeholder's perceptions. It becomes possible to simulate the dynamic effects of changing land use patterns, environmental policy options, and technical innovation together with environmental constraints and structural change issues. The MAS approach is used to model heterogeneous farm-household and political decision makers perspectives by capturing their socio-economic, environmental, and spatial interactions explicitly. The integration of economic and spatial processes facilitates the consideration of feedback effects and the efficient use of scarce land resources. The simulation runs of the model will be carried out with a socio-economic and GIS data set, which is provided by the previous project phase in the attempt to generate effective ways of land use resource management. Land use efficiency is strongly influenced by the overall land allocation policy analyzed in project F1. Therefore, this is an important area further integrated research using MAS in combination with GIS as modeling tools.To achieve a continuous integration of results in the best possible way, a computer-based discussion/communication platform is developed. This serves as the conceptual basis for the development of the final multi-agent simulation model. Results of the discussion/communication platform and the agent-based simulation model will continuously be passed on to downstream sub-projects to be integrated into the ongoing research activities.
Das Projekt "Landentwertung, Verarmung und Ueberlebensstrategien laendlicher aethiopischer Haushalte. Wahrnehmung durch die Bauern und politische Implikationen" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Berlin (Humboldt-Univ.), Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut für Agrar- und Gartenbauwissenschaften - Ressourcenökonomie durchgeführt. Objectives: 1. Generate some stylised facts on the behaviour of smallholder farmers and provide answer(s) to questions such as what are the economic responses (survival strategies) of small farmers as land gets degraded from time to time? 2. Closer examination of the causes and extents of land degradation and degree (dimension) of impoverishment from the farmers perspective. 3. Provide an overall evaluation of the macro policies, activities of governmental, and NGOs towards resource conservation, disaster prevention and preparedness strategy and formulate major policy issues that emerge from the findings. 4. Scrutinizing the efficiency of recently adopted Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) and liberal economic policies towards improving the ability of the country to produce food crops in surplus growing regions at the lower opportunity cost of the domestic inputs employed than obtaining it by import or food aid.