“BioSight” Workshop: building a framework for modeling sustainable agricultural intensification

The workshop held over 3-4 December on the BioSight project was attended by over 40 participants from a range of CGIAR centers, Universities and Advanced Research Institutes – modeling experts in the areas of agricultural production and markets, land use, environmental quality and crop production systems, as well as experts in institutions and governance of natural resource systems. This event focused on the key issues and recent findings around the environmental and socio-economic implications of sustainable agricultural intensification.

The BioSight project, which was initiated in early 2013 with funding from PIM, seeks to build a strong analytical framework for understanding and managing the tradeoffs around agricultural intensification that have consequences for environmental quality, resource sustainability and socio-economic well-being. The workshop provided a platform for a rich and broad-ranging dialogue around improving the methodological and conceptual foundations of this work, including how to better represent the role of institutions in bio-economic modeling, as well as the key entry-points for gender-relevant issues. The insights from the workshop will be used in the design of the quantitative work of the project in 2014 and beyond, and embody a significant step in forming strong partnerships to carry that work forward.

Please find below links to the workshop agenda, papers and presentations.

Agenda

Papers:

Bell_Agent_Based_Modeling

FlichmanThomas_BioEconModeling_Final

Haglund_Gender_and_Ag_Intensification

Howitt_Modeling_Steady_State_Irrigation

Swallow_Institutions_Bioeconomic_Modeling

Wander_Enviro_Indicators

Wu_Land_Use_Change_and_Ag_Intensification

Presentations:

Allen_Sustainable_Diets_presentation