The Food and Agriculture Model of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis

Haen, H. de (1978). The Food and Agriculture Model of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. IIASA Research Memorandum. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: RM-78-024

Preview

Text RM-78-024.pdf Download (743kB) | Preview

Abstract

The report summarizes objectives and scope of a global system of national agricultural sector models which is currently being developed as part of the Food and Agriculture Program at IIASA.

The paper starts with a very brief characterization of the recent world food situation. It is emphasized that the main efforts to overcome current and expected food scarcities will have to be made within the affected developing nations themselves. International food policies, however, will have an important role to play in supporting these efforts. Three problem domains of international relevance are briefly discussed| instability of world markets, insecurity of food aid and deterioration of international trade.

The third section contains a summary of available global models insofar as they emphasize food and agriculture. No results or policy recommendations are reported here, rather the basic structural differences are discussed.

This schematic comparison of models leads then to a more detailed discussion of the international food and agriculture model of IIASA. The objective of the IIASA program is to define and quantify alternative sets of international and national policies which seem appropriate to reduce world hunger within the next 5-15 years by exploiting the international interactions between developing and industrial nations and by increasing local production in developing countries. The emphasis of the program lies on international cooperation.

A stepwise procedure is envisaged, where in the first phase a set of national agricultural sector models will be specified and empirically tested which will then, during the second phase, be linked through a world consistency model to simulate the global system. The national models will have some common properties to achieve operationality. They will typically consist of a disaggregated agricultural production component, an aggregated submodel for the rest of the economy as well as a consistent national expenditure system. These components define a so-called "real world bloc" which is controlled by a "policy bloc" describing goals and instruments at the government decision level.

Actions (login required)

View Item