A Framework for the Exploration of Critical Factors on Promoting Two-Season Cultivation in India

Abstract

To promote a new mode of production and a changed lifestyle in a relatively closed, underdeveloped community, critical interventions should be explored, and, as appropriate, implemented. Different scenarios are identified and explored so that decision support can be provided to social entrepreneurs (SEs). Here, agent-based modeling (ABM) is used to simulate villagers’ acceptance of second-season cultivation, growing two crops a year instead of one. We explore the possibility of second-season cultivation to improve the villagers’ social-economic status in both the short term and the long term. The proposed method of capturing and making use of critical factors in influencing individuals’ behavior in a community can be used in other projects. Our focus in here is on the method, rather than the specific results.