Navigation auf uzh.ch
Navigation auf uzh.ch
A group of three Master students developed a tool to simulate innovation diffusion in Sub-Saharan Africa using an agent-based approach. With this tool, field researchers can most efficiently introduce crucial agricultural innovations intended to reduce poverty and ensure food security. In order to facilitate the adoption of such innovations, it is crucial to effectively reach key opinion leaders and provide the right incentives to farmers. The students Ann-Kathrin Kübler, Hannah Rohe and Joël Inglin refined an existing model of innovation diffusion (developed at ZKSD by an earlier Master student, Marc Zwimpfer) and created a simplified, intuitive tool that can be used by field researchers to optimally plan their interventions using agent-based simulation and optimization. This approach supports assessing the effects of intervention strategies for spreading information on agricultural advancements and can be generalized to be applied to similar problems.
