A System Dynamics Model For Evaluating Investment Strategies for Agriculture Development

Abstract

This paper presents a System Dynamics model to analyze the consequences of investments in agriculture. The data is taken from the various case studies of agriculture in India and is used as an example in the simulation model. A number of investment strategies are simulated to see the performence of the overall system. Some results are presented from the simulation providing insight into the intricacies of the system variables which may be used as guidelines for investing large funds in agro-projects to maximise the benefits and to reduce the undesired consequences. The model can be used to study the effects of changes in one or more controllable variables in the performance of the system. It provides insight into the system variables which are important in making the planning a success and to optimize the profits from the investments. The paper describes in detail the system dynamics flow diagram of the agriculture system model, the factors which are important for investments to be profitable.