Zimbabwe Agro-Pastoral Management Model (ZAPMM): Musimboti wevanhu, zvipfuo nezvirimwa (1.0.0)

This model has been created with and for the researcher-farmers of the Muonde Trust (http://www.muonde.org/), a registered Zimbabwean non-governmental organization dedicated to fostering indigenous innovation. Model behaviors and parameters (mashandiro nemisiyano nedzimwe model) derive from a combination of literature review and the collected datasets from Muonde’s long-term (over 30 years) community-based research. The goals of this model are three-fold (muzvikamu zvitatu):
A) To represent three components of a Zimbabwean agro-pastoral system (crops, woodland grazing area, and livestock) along with their key interactions and feedbacks and some of the human management decisions that may affect these components and their interactions.
B) To assess how climate variation (implemented in several different ways) and human management may affect the sustainability of the system as measured by the continued provisioning of crops, livestock, and woodland grazing area.
C) To provide a discussion tool for the community and local leaders to explore different management strategies for the agro-pastoral system (hwaro/nzira yekudyidzana kwavanhu, zvipfuo nezvirimwa), particularly in the face of climate change.

Release Notes

ZAPMM is designed to run in NetLogo 5.2.1 and has been developed and run on both Windows and most recently Linux (Ubuntu Mate 1.12.1) without incident. The GUI elements may not line up correctly depending on your screen resolution.

There are no input files for this model, and no outputs (unless you use NetLogo’s built-in BehaviorSpace tool to run the included experiments).

See https://github.com/mveitzel/ZAPMM for more resources for running this model on a high-performance cloud computing cluster.

Associated Publications

Eitzel, M. V.; Solera, J.; Wilson, K; Neves, K. T; Fisher, A.C.; Veski, A.; Omoju, O. E.; Mawere Ndlovu, A.; Mhike Hove, E. (2020) “Using mixed methods to construct and analyze a participatory agent-based model of a complex Zimbabwean agro-pastoral system.” PLoS ONE 15(8), e0237638.

Eitzel, M. V.; Solera, J.; Wilson, K; Neves, K. T; Fisher, A.C.; Veski, A.; Omoju, O. E.; Mawere Ndlovu, A.; Mhike Hove, E. (2020) “Indigenous climate adaptation sovereignty in a Zimbabwean agro-pastoral system: exploring definitions of sustainability ‘success’ using a participatory agent-based model.” Ecology & Society 25(4), 13.

Eitzel, M. V.; Solera, J.; Mhike Hove, E.; Wilson, K.B.; Mawere Ndlovu, A.; Ndlovu, D.; Changarara, A.; Ndlovu, A.; Neves, K.; Omoju, O.; Fisher, A.C.; Veski, A. (2021) “Assessing the Potential of Participatory Modeling for Decolonial Restoration of an Agro-pastoral System in Rural Zimbabwe.” Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 6(1), p.2.

Eitzel, M. V.; Solera, J; Wilson, K. B.; Mawere Ndlovu, A; Mhike Hove, E.; Ndlovu, D.; Changarara, A.; Ndlovu, A.; Neves, K.; Chirindira, A.; Omoju, O.E.; Fisher, A.C.; Veski, A. (2022) “Collaborative modeling as socio-technical data infrastructure in rural Zimbabwe.” In The Nature of Data: Infrastructures, Environments, Politics, Nost, E. and Goldstein, J. Eds. University of Nebraska Press.