The projects AGRICORE, BESTMAP, and MIND STEP, which form the the Agrimodels Cluster (https://agrimodels-cluster.eu/), presented the current state of their work and recent findings during a workshop at the 97th Annual Conference of The Agricultural Economics Society that was held at The University of Warwick, UK - 27th - 29th March 2023.
The workshop was titled 'AGRIMODELS Cluster: State of Play Regarding Modelling of Individual Decision Making' and chaired by Dr. Marc Müller (Wageningen Economic Research, MIND STEP). Participants of the three projects provided examples on model development and model linkages in three presentations, namely:
- PMP agent-based AGRICORE model for ex-ante assessment of regional agri-environmental schemes. Presented by: Lisa Baldi (University of Parma, AGRICORE)
- Benefits and challenges of the linking of general computable equilibrium (CGE) or partial equilibrium (PE) models with agent-based models (ABM). Presented by: Alena Schmidt (University of Basel, BESTMAP)
- Analyses of Carbon and Nitrogen taxation scenarios in a multi-model framework. Presented by: Marc Müller (Wageningen Economic Research, MIND STEP)
The workshop was well attended and a lively discussion ensued after the presentations, largely with regard to practical topics, like the usage of farm-level statistics and complementary data in multi-model frameworks, model linkages across scales, and the challenges for modelling teams arising from staff fluctuations in a dominantly project-funded setting. Regarding the latter, the creation of a network of farm-level modellers was proposed and discussed. The positive feedback in the aftermath of the session showed that participation in such a network would be widely appreciated, but several organizational challenges have to be addressed beforehand.
You can check the presentation delivered by Marc Müller (Wageningen Economic Research) here.