EMERGENCE OF COOPERATION IN A MODEL
FOR AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION
Santiago Gil1, Aleix Serrat-Capdevila2
1Complex Systems Group, Fritz-Haber-Institute der Max-Plank-GesellschaftBerlin, Germany
2Department of Hydrology and Water Resources and SAHRA, The University of Arizona
Tucson, United States of America
Received: 15. January 2010. Accepted: 12. June 2010.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of cooperation in a model for an artificial farming society is studied here by the use of an agent-based model. The system is composed of an ensemble of N agents assumed to have equal access to water, whose availability fluctuates randomly in time. Each agent makes two decisions every sowing season regarding: (1) the type of crop mix to plant and (2) whether s/he joins, or not, a cooperative group that allocates water amongst farmers to maximize the production and share revenues equally. Results show that the degree to which farmers choose to cooperate has a strong dependency on the mean water availability. Cooperation seems to emerge as a way of adaptation to uncertain environments by which individual risk is minimized.
KEY WORDS
cooperation, water uncertainty, farming, agent-based modelling, resource allocation
CLASSIFICATION
JEL: C63, O13, Q15, Q25
Full paper as pdf version.