Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems (Jul 2010)

Emergence of cooperation in a model agricultural production

  • Santiago Gil,
  • Aleix Serrat-Capdevila

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 8, no. 1
pp. 1 – 12

Abstract

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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.

Keywords