Simulation games refer to serious games that are more and more used with farmers. Some simulation games are currently and efficiently experimented in South-Eastern Asia, for watershed management, animal diseases revention, environmental management… These participatory methods allow taking into account both local points of views and scientific knowledge, especially about social and economic features as organizational, market-oriented, collective rules matters.
Agroecology is one of the domains that simulation games are useful. Simulation games help farmers to co-design collective organizations fitted both to their uses and to the technical agroecology requirements. The games also drive farmers to develop exchanges with other stakeholders (as traders, processors, technical advisers…) and involve them into their co-design then test (by ‘playing” simulation scenarios) of collective solutions. Furthermore, the simulation process along the game make participants practically aware of implementing conditions and impacts of practices and rules, as they will have to deal with during the game.
Consequently, simulation games will be a relevant tool for institutions and organizations supporting agroecology in South-Eastern Asia. These tools will help to establish exchanges between stakeholders and to let them co-design scenarios for agroecology transition that will be fitted to each different context, both in terms of biophysical and socioeconomic features.
The skills for simulation games require a learning-by-doing method that the Cirad team has been developed in the last years. The purpose of this proposal was to set the first steps towards a skilled pool of simulation game facilitators within the South-Eastern Asia agroecology stakeholders. In this perspective, the objective of this proposal was to implement a collective training then a learning-by-doing process on participants’ field cases, for participants from the different countries of ACTAE regional project.
Detailed of the report can be downloaded here
