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Incorporating farm household decision-making within whole farm models

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Understanding Options for Agricultural Production

Part of the book series: Systems Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development ((SAAD,volume 7))

Abstract

If models of agricultural systems are to have a major impact on policy formulation and assessment then it is important to integrate the human elements of these systems with biological models in a whole farm context. This chapter outlines the structure of one such model, which integrates CERES-Maize and BEANGRO with family decision-making and demographic models in a whole farm model of a subsistence farming system. Although the development of this prototype whole farm model has demonstrated the feasibility of integrating socio-economic and biological models, further work is required before such integrations can become more widespread. Particular problems relate to model formulation, the choice of the appropriate scale for modeling farm families, data collection, and validation. Should these problems be overcome then the requirement to integrate socio-economic and biological models may have implications for the design of future crop models.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rural Resource Management Department, Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JG, UK

    G. Edwards-Jones & O. Morgan

  2. Institute of Ecology and Resource Management, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3JG, UK

    J. B. Dent

  3. Muresk Institute of Agriculture, Curtin University of Technology, Northam, Western Australia, 6401, Australia

    M. J. McGregor

Authors
  1. G. Edwards-Jones
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  2. J. B. Dent
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  3. O. Morgan
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  4. M. J. McGregor
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hawaii-Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA

    Gordon Y. Tsuji

  2. Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, The University of Georgia, Georgia, USA

    Gerrit Hoogenboom

  3. International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

    Philip K. Thornton

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© 1998 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Edwards-Jones, G., Dent, J.B., Morgan, O., McGregor, M.J. (1998). Incorporating farm household decision-making within whole farm models. In: Tsuji, G.Y., Hoogenboom, G., Thornton, P.K. (eds) Understanding Options for Agricultural Production. Systems Approaches for Sustainable Agricultural Development, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3624-4_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3624-4_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4940-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-3624-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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