Description

In 2002-2003, Thai university partners, who have been working for many years with local villagers, were concerned by the expansion of commercial sugarcane cultivation in the upper rice paddies of the traditional rainfed lowland rice ecosystem. At the same time, a research team was seeking opportunities to test the use of the ComMod approach to facilitate the understanding of rapid transformations in rice ecosystems. They proposed to their KKU partners to collaborative modelling to analyze the determining factors and consequences of land use change in this region.

This was the first ComMod case study implemented in Thailand and was composed of five phases:

1.  Co-constructing a conceptual model, mainly formalised in UML diagrams, representing the decision-making processes related to the allocation of a given crop to a plot in a small catchment, and the sale of the sugarcane by the producers. This model was based on existing knowledge, supplemented by a few interviews with local stakeholders in the sugarcane sector,
2.  Constructing a role playing game based on the initial understanding of land use change by the research team. This game was first tested and calibrated with KKU students,
3.  First field workshop based on this game played with various types of farmers (some of them being quota leaders for the local sugarmill) to share and improve this dynamic representation of their agricultural system. They then requested modifications and the chance to replay the game with other stakeholders in the sugarcane sector,
4.  Second workshop with the same villagers and representatives of the sugarmill, the professional association of sugarcane growers, and a member of the sugarcane board based in the capital city fixing the annual farmgate price for the sugarcane. This workshop ended with the presentation of a computerised multi-agent simulator reproducing quickly the gaming sessions practiced by the stakeholders, and checking the villagers' ability to follow such simulations. Scenarios of interest based on the diversification of agricultural activities were also identified,
5.  Running a workshop similar to the previous one (in March 2003) in a neighbouring village where a diagnostic-analysis of the agrarian system had identified an advanced level of agricultural diversification. This workshop was combined with a training course on the ComMod approach and its tools held at KKU.

The approach culminated in validating the possibility of running a ComMod process in a Thai rural environment, which was followed by other case studies starting up in other regions in the country on other common problems of renewable resource management. The type of role playing game developed was of great interest to the main Thai economist partner and has been used in several training programmes and other projects. However, the combination of such a game with a computerised multi-agent model, as validated in this case study, was not adopted by the Thai team despite the availability of local resources for this purpose.