Agent-Based Modelling to Assess Community Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods

Samantha Dobbie; Kate Schreckenberg; James G. Dyke; Marije Schaafsma; Stefano Balbi

doi:10.18564/jasss.3639

Agent-Based Modelling to Assess Community Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods

Samantha Dobbie, Kate Schreckenberg, James G. Dyke, Marije Schaafsma, Stefano Balbi

Environmental Economics

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We present a methodological approach for constructing an agent-based model (ABM) to assess community food security and variation among livelihood trajectories, using rural Malawi as a case study. The approach integrates both quantitative and qualitative data to explore how interactions between households and the environment lead to the emergence of community food availability, access, utilisation and stability over time. Results suggest that livelihoods based upon either non-agricultural work or farming are most stable over time, but agricultural labourers, dependent upon the availability of casual work, demonstrate limited capacity to ‘step-up’ livelihood activities. The scenario results suggest that population growth and increased rainfall variability are linked to significant declines in food utilisation and stability by 2050. Taking a systems approach may help to enhance the sustainability of livelihoods, target efforts and promote community food security. We discuss transferability of the methodological approach to other case studies and scenarios.

Original language	English
Article number	1
Journal	Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
Volume	21
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.18564/jasss.3639
Publication status	Published - 31 Jan 2018

Funding

SD was supported by an EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre grant (EP/G03690X/1). MS provided the village-level data collected under an ESPA Early Career Fellowship Grant (FELL-2014-104) with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The expert workshop was organized with the support of the 'Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems using Trade-off Scenarios' project (ASSETS; http://espa-assets.org/;NE-J002267-1), which is also funded with support from ESPA. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). SB was supported by two grants: BizkaiaTalent, Marie Curie Actions (People, Grant agreement n. 267230) and Juan de la Cierva incorporación (Grant IJCI-2014-22590). SD was supported by an EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre grant (EP/G03690X/1). MS provided the village-level data collected under an ESPA Early Career Fellowship Grant (FELL-2014-104) with support from the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The expert workshop was organized with the support of the ‘Attaining Sustainable Services from Ecosystems using Trade-off Scenarios’ project (ASSETS; http: //espa-assets.org/; NE-J002267-1), which is also funded with support from ESPA. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). SB was supported by two grants: BizkaiaTalent, Marie Curie Actions (People, Grant agreement n. 267230) and Juan de la Cierva incorporación (Grant IJCI-2014-22590).

Funders	Funder number
Department for International Development
EPSRC Doctoral Training Centre	FELL-2014-104
Economic and Social Research Council
Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation	NE-J002267-1
Marie Curie Actions	IJCI-2014-22590, 267230
Natural Environment Research Council
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council	EP/G03690X/1
Economic and Social Research Council
Natural Environment Research Council
Department for International Development

Keywords

Food Security
Livelihood Trajectories
Malawi
Nutrition
Social-Ecological Systems

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.18564/jasss.3639

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Agent-Based Modelling to Assess Community Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods

Abstract

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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