APPLICATION OF SIMULATION MODELS IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND PLANNING, A REVIEW

Abstract

Since the beginnings of agriculture for about 10,000 BC, mankind has benefited from the use of its products to satisfy needs for food and commerce mainly. Agricultural production systems have become more organized and productive as a result of the increase in knowledge about agriculture. However, it is also true that specialization in agronomy, the science that studies agriculture, has propitiated in some cases the implementation of technical innovations that set out key elements of production systems such as social and cultural aspects, climate, physical, chemical and biological soil properties, among others, producing his failure in practice. From this perspective, the use of different types of models, in agriculture, has become an alternative for planning and research. Since it can be used to predict the behavior of a plant or animal with different management practices, soil characteristics, the behavior of a cattle herd, the interaction between different crops, the behavior of production systems, interacting with livestock and crops. Actually It has been incorporated the effect of agricultural policies, the rationality of producers, market characteristics and environmental situations (rainfall patterns and climate changes). Since the theory of agroecosystems appears they have been used to simulate the sustainability, in a holistic and systemic vision. Another important development has been to consider a producer as a person who participates in the modeling process and not as a component of the system that needs to be modeled in what is denominated participative modeling. The objective of this paper is to contribute with an analysis of models use in the agriculture evaluation and planning, down different approaches.