Thomas Berger

Idiomas

Áreas de atuação

Produções bibliográficas

• . Climate variability, food security and poverty: Agent-based assessment of policy options for farm households in Northern Ghana. Environmental Science & Policy , v. 47, p. 95-107, 2015.

• GIL, JULIANA ; SIEBOLD, MATTHIAS ; BERGER, THOMAS . Adoption and development of integrated crop-livestock-forestry systems in Mato Grosso, Brazil. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (Print) , v. 199, p. 394-406, 2015.

• RIWTHONG, SUTHATHIP ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; GROVERMANN, CHRISTIAN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Land use intensification, commercialization and changes in pest management of smallholder upland agriculture in Thailand. Environmental Science & Policy , v. 45, p. 11-19, 2015.

• WOSSEN, TESFAMICHEAL ; BERGER, THOMAS ; DI FALCO, SALVATORE . Social capital, risk preference and adoption of improved farm land management practices in Ethiopia. Agricultural Economics , v. 46, p. 81-97, 2015.

• WOSSEN, TESFAMICHEAL ; BERGER, THOMAS ; SWAMIKANNU, NEDUMARAN ; RAMILAN, THIAGARAJAH . Climate variability, consumption risk and poverty in semi-arid Northern Ghana: Adaptation options for poor farm households. Environmental Development , v. 12, p. 2-15, 2014.

• BERGER, THOMAS ; TROOST, CHRISTIAN . Agent-based Modelling of Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Options in Agriculture. Journal of Agricultural Economics , v. 65, p. 323-348, 2014.

• QUANG, DANG VIET ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Ex-ante assessment of soil conservation methods in the uplands of Vietnam: An agent-based modeling approach. Agricultural Systems , v. 123, p. 108-119, 2014.

• WOSSEN, TESFAMICHEAL ; BERGER, THOMAS ; MEQUANINTE, TEFERI ; ALAMIREW, BAMLAKU . Social network effects on the adoption of sustainable natural resource management practices in Ethiopia. International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology , v. 20, p. 477-483, 2013.

• GROVERMANN, CHRISTIAN ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Quantifying pesticide overuse from farmer and societal points of view: An application to Thailand. Crop Protection , v. 53, p. 161-168, 2013.

• BUI, THI MINH HANG ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Hydropower development in Vietnam: Involuntary resettlement and factors enabling rehabilitation. Land Use Policy , v. 31, p. 536-544, 2013.

• MAROHN, CARSTEN ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; QUANG, DANG VIET ; BERGER, THOMAS ; SIRIPALANGKANONT, PRAKIT ; NGUYEN, THANH THI ; CADISCH, GEORG . A software coupling approach to assess low-cost soil conservation strategies for highland agriculture in Vietnam. Environmental Modelling & Software , v. 45, p. 116-128, 2013.

• BECKER, K. ; WULFMEYER, V. ; BERGER, T. ; GEBEL, J. ; MÜNCH, W. . Carbon farming in hot, dry coastal areas: an option for climate change mitigation. Earth System Dynamics Discussions , v. 3, p. 1221-1258, 2012.

• SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS . An agent-based simulation model of human-environment interactions in agricultural systems. Environmental Modelling & Software , v. 26, p. 845-859, 2011.

• SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; POTCHANASIN, CHAKRIT ; BERGER, THOMAS ; ROYGRONG, SITHIDECH . Agent-based modeling for-ex ante-assessment of tree crop innovations: litchis in northern Thailand. Agricultural Economics , v. 41, p. 519-536, 2010.

• SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS ; SIRIJINDA, AER ; PRANEETVATAKUL, SUWANNA . The Diffusion of Greenhouse Agriculture in Northern Thailand: Combining Econometrics and Agent-Based Modeling. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics , v. 57, p. 513-536, 2009.

• NOLAN, JAMES ; PARKER, DAWN ; VAN KOOTEN, G. CORNELIS ; BERGER, THOMAS . An Overview of Computational Modeling in Agricultural and Resource Economics. Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics , v. 57, p. 417-429, 2009.

• URIBE-C, H. ; ARNOLD, T. ; ARUMI, J. ; BERGER, T ; RIVERA, D. . Modification of the hydrological model WaSiM-ETH to improve its application in irrigated areas. Ingenieria Hidráulica en México (1985) , v. 24, p. 23, 2009.

• YILMA, T. ; BERG, E. ; BERGER, T. . The Agricultural Technology Market Linkage under Liberalisation in Ghana: Evidence from Micro Data. Journal of African Economies , v. 17, p. 62-84, 2007.

• SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS ; AUNE, JENS B. . Simulating soil fertility and poverty dynamics in Uganda: A bio-economic multi-agent systems approach. Ecological Economics (Amsterdam) , v. 64, p. 387-401, 2007.

• ROBINSON, DEREK T. ; BROWN, DANIEL G. ; PARKER, DAWN C. ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; JANSSEN, MARCO A. ; HUIGEN, MARCO ; WITTMER, HEIDI ; GOTTS, NICK ; PROMBUROM, PANOMSAK ; IRWIN, ELENA ; BERGER, THOMAS ; GATZWEILER, FRANZ ; BARNAUD, CÉCILE . Comparison of empirical methods for building agent-based models in land use science. Journal of Land Use Science (Print) , v. 2, p. 31-55, 2007.

• SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Land use decisions in developing countries and their representation in multi-agent systems. Journal of Land Use Science (Print) , v. 1, p. 29-44, 2006.

• BERGER, THOMAS ; SCHREINEMACHERS, PEPIJN ; WOELCKE, JOHANNES . Multi-agent simulation for the targeting of development policies in less-favored areas. Agricultural Systems , v. 88, p. 28-43, 2006.

• BERGER, THOMAS ; BIRNER, REGINA ; MCCARTHY, NANCY ; DÍAZ, JOSÉ ; WITTMER, HEIDI . Capturing the complexity of water uses and water users within a multi-agent framework. Water Resources Management , v. 21, p. 129-148, 2006.

• BERGER, T . gentenbasierte Modellierung von Landnutzungsdynamiken und Optionen der Agrar- und Agrarumweltpolitik. Agrarwirtschaft. GER J AGR ECON , v. 53, p. 77-87, 2004.

• ASANTE, F. ; BERGER, T. ; ENGEL, S. ; SKANDARANI, M. . Water security in the Ghanaian Volta Basin : patterns, determinants, and consequences. Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture , v. 41, p. 145, 2002.

• BERGER, T ; RINGLER, C. . Tradeoffs, efficiency gains and technical change - Modeling water management and land use within a multiple-agent framework. Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture , v. 41, p. 119, 2002.

• BERGER, T . Agent-based spatial models applied to agriculture: a simulation tool for technology diffusion, resource use changes and policy analysis. Agricultural Economics , v. 25, p. 245-260, 2001.

• BERGER, T. ; BRANDES, W. . Evolutionäre Ansätze in der Agrarökonomik. GER J AGR ECON , v. 47, p. 275, 1998.

• BERGER, T . Modelo de simulación para medir los procesos de innovación en el sector agrícola El ejemplo de Chile y su asociación al Mercosur. Economía Agraria , v. 1, p. 15, 1997.

• TROOST, C. ; BERGER, T. . Dealing with Uncertainty in Agent-Based Simulation: Farm-Level Modeling of Adaptation to Climate Change in Southwest Germany. American Journal of Agricultural Economics , 2014.

• ARNOLD, R. T. ; TROOST, CHRISTIAN ; BERGER, THOMAS . Quantifying the economic importance of irrigation water reuse in a Chilean watershed using an integrated agent-based model. Water Resources Research , 2014.

Projetos de pesquisa

• 2012 - Atual

  DFG: Regional Climate Change - Central project management and communication, Descrição: This subproject is in charge of coordinating and managing all central tasks of the Research Unit. These tasks include internal communication, organization of project meetings, workshops and symposia, coordination of field experiments, support of young researchers and visiting scientists, publication policy and reporting, public relations, and equal opportunities issues.. , Situação: Em andamento; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Thilo Streck - Coordenador.

• 2012 - Atual

  Agent Based Modeling of Human-environment Interactions in a Smallholder Agricultural System in the Atlantic Rainforest (Ribeira Valley, SP. Brazil), Descrição: Our man objective is to build a modeling tool that is able to optimize local resource use, improve quilombola livelihood and avoid great impacts on the forest. The model will be used to reveal the process of technology adoption and diffusion, and to identify factors influencing households in the decision-making process concerning land use. On the other hand, the model will test how the local environment responds shifting cultivation practices and to recent land use changes.. , Situação: Em andamento; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Alunos envolvidos: Doutorado: (1) . , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Coordenador / Cristina Adams - Integrante / Lucia Chamlian Munari - Integrante., Financiador(es): Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - Bolsa.

• 2011 - 2014

  Modelo de Sistema Multiagentes como Ferramenta para Avaliação da Adoção e Difusão de Novas Tecnologias Agrícolas em Comunidades Quilombolas no Vale do Ribeira (SP), Descrição: O objetivo central desta proposta é construir um modelo de sistemas multiagentes (MAS) para compreender o funcionamento do processo de adoção e abandono de inovações em um sistema agrícola itinerante no bioma Mata Atlântica, no Vale do Ribeira (SP). Seu caráter inovador reside na parametrização do modelo a partir de dados empíricos, em oposição aos estudos hipotéticos e experimentais (toy models), mais frequentes na literatura, e em sua aplicação a um sistema agrícola itinerante, central no debate sobre a conservação das florestas tropicais. Os objetivos serão alcançados através de uma metodologia interdisciplinar, baseada em métodos da área de modelagem de sistemas complexos e das ciências sociais. O resultado do projeto poderá contribuir para a simulação e avaliação de políticas públicas de desenvolvimento local voltados para a agricultura familiar, setor responsável por garantir boa parte da segurança alimentar do país.. , Situação: Concluído; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Alunos envolvidos: Doutorado: (1) . , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Cristina Adams - Coordenador / Lucia Chamlian Munari - Integrante / Carla Morsello - Integrante / Rui Sergio Sereni Murrieta - Integrante / Carlos de Brito Pereira - Integrante / Fernado fagundes Ferreira - Integrante / Flavia Mori Sarti - Integrante / Luiz Carlos Beduschi Filho - Integrante., Financiador(es): Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo - Auxílio financeiro.

• 2011 - Atual

  BMBF: Carbon sequestration, biodiversity and social structures in Southern Amazonia (CarBioCial), Descrição: Land use in southern Amazonia has undergone rapid changes in recent years, especially in Central Mato Grosso where favorable soybean prices have led to both massive deforestation and expansion of the soybean area into former grazing lands. Soybeans have been promoted by the Brazilian Government as part of its efforts to increase biodiesel production. With the pavement of the Cuiabá-Santarém Highway, the soybean area is expected to increase by another 25%, which will have mixed effects on the overall balance of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the profitability of farming systems, and the sustainability of ecosystem functions and services. This project will explore options to adapt land management to climate change, considering the soybean value chain and overall carbon balance (including the mitigation potential through increased bioenergy supply). The project will take an agro-economic perspective and analyze incentives for farm enterprises to adopt GHG reducing land management strategies. Finally, it will assess the trade-offs between various land uses and policy interventions in terms of GHG reduction, profitability and ecological sustainability. To achieve these objectives, the project will use the MP-MAS software (standing for mathematical programming based multi-agent system) that the German applicant started developing in 1995, building on the pioneering work of Balmann. MP-MAS uses mathematical programming to replicate the actual decision-making of farmers and other land users. Each real-world farm household is represented by a single agent in the model; that is, there is a one-to-one correspondence between real-world farmers and modeled agents. MP-MAS is spatially explicit and employs a cell-based data representation where each grid cell corresponds to one farm plot held by a single landowner. Sub-models of, for example, water run-off and crop growth are linked to this cell-based spatial framework. Since MP-MAS is specified at a very fine resolution, it offers potential for interactive validation and simulation together with farmers and other local stakeholders.. , Situação: Em andamento; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Gerhard Gerold - Coordenador.

• 2009 - 2012

  IFPRI: Working together for market access - Strengthening rural producer organizations in Sub-Saharan Africa, Descrição: Smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is largely exposed to pervasive market failures, translating into missed opportunities and sub-optimal economic behavior. These failures are often rooted in the importance of economies of scale in procuring inputs and marketing produce. By engaging in such markets collectively, smallholders can therefore better access and benefit from them. This supposes, however, that all group members commit a sufficient amount of their resources such that the benefits from the derived economies of scale can overcome the costs of running the organization. This commitment in turn depends on one s expectation of other members commitment. Over the past decade, many governments and donor agencies have shown renewed interests in Rural Producers Organizations (RPOs) as a means to overcome these market failures for Sub-Saharan African farmers. Evidence shows, however, that many RPOs have so far had limited success. The objective of this project is to identify specific interventions that can improve RPOs capacities. Opportunity costs of time, gender, and the capacity to mobilize labor play a significant role in determining these. While recognizing other determinants of success, the project s innovation will be to examine ways to affect RPOs performance on input and output markets, through enhanced commitment of members. Broadly speaking, this is research on implementation of development actions, a much neglected area of research. Specifically, member commitment will be enhanced by (i) improved coordination of members via institutionalization of better leadership capacity, and (ii) improved compliance of members via better incentive alignments reached through the provision of complementary activities such as insurance and/or credit. Final performance will be measured as the groups capacities to provide their members with better prices for inputs and outputs. It is also expected that the obtained increase in income will affect the relative prices of working in and out of the farm, resulting in dynamic local labor market effects. In each case, the project is also interested in the distribution of beneficiaries by income, gender, and other factors. Within this project, multi-agent system (MAS) models will be applied in order to explore the functioning of rural producer organizations and find a ways of strengthening their capacities and improving their market performance. Computer simulations will be used for the assessment of prospective development interventions and for the choice of the most beneficial ones. As a tool for simulation, the project uses MP-MAS, a software package being developed in Hohenheim. MP-MAS was previously applied in the Integrating Governance and Modeling Project of the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water and Food (see http://wwwuni-hohenheim.de/igm). For the current project MP-MAS has been upgraded with model components of collective decision-making and market adaptation.. , Situação: Concluído; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Maximo Torrero - Coordenador.

• 2008 - Atual

  DFG: Regional Climate Change - Agent-based modelling and assessment of human-environment interactions, Descrição: A better understanding of human-environment interactions and especially of land users decision-making processes is a key requisite for exploring possible coping strategies to climate change and for improving land use planning. So far, land system models have focused on land areas as the main unit of analysis and have not represented the decision-making of land users explicitly. Within the second generation of land system models, attention has therefore shifted from pixels to agents. When building so-called multi-agent models, the challenge becomes to realistically represent individual land use decisions and especially the adaptation to climate change. Factors to be considered are options for technology adoption, learning and risk-coping strategies, and spatial interaction. Another challenge is the integration of multi-agent models with land surface-atmosphere models and especially crop growth models at detailed spatial scales, which has rarely been achieved. The major scientific goal of this subproject is to develop the agent-based model component for the overall land system model of this Research Unit. The project fulfils a linking role between the microeconomic modelling at the individual farm level and the biophysical modelling at the landscape level.. , Situação: Em andamento; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Coordenador.

• 2008 - Atual

  DFG: Regional Climate Change - Integration of land system model components, Descrição: Various drivers affect the dynamics of land systems at the regional level and have therefore to be captured in land system modelling. Climate factors affect biophysical processes directly (for example, temperature and atmospheric CO2 change the rate of photosynthesis) and indirectly (for example, increasing temperature changes the environmental conditions for water and nutrient supply, pests, diseases, weeds etc., which affect crop and livestock production). Non-climate factors affect socio-economic processes through changes in policies and institutions and, most importantly, through the adjustments and adaptations of land users. Unfortunately, these drivers and impacts cannot easily be disentangled because they work interdependently, and certain processes, such as crop growth during flowering and fruiting, show strongly non-linear responses. Moreover, land users may succeed in compensating for some negative impacts on their livelihoods, while in other cases even exploiting and thereby increasing the positive impacts. This subproject links model components for the various biophysical and socio-economic processes at high resolution, which is paramount to assess the vulnerability and sensitivity of land systems and to explore suitable adaptation strategies.. , Situação: Em andamento; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Coordenador.

• 2007 - 2009

  BMBF: Efficient extraction and use of oil, and production of feed grade protein concentrate and seed meal from Jatropha curcas seeds for inclusion in monogastric, fish and ruminant feeds, Descrição: Jatropha curcas plantations can be set up on eroded lands under harsh climatic conditions. The seeds contain about 25 35% oil that can be used as fuel directly or as a substitute to diesel in the transesterified form. Many oil importing countries have plans currently to undertake massive cultivation of Jatropha to produce renewable fuel oil locally and reclaim wasteland for food production. The surging prices of crude oil in the international markets have resulted in several private and corporate players showing interest in the field. The appropriate utilization of the Jatropha seed meal left after the extraction of oil is vital for the viability, sustainability and hence wider acceptability of the Jatropha-based biofuel production systems. At present, the seed meal is used as a fertilizer, the selling price of which is approximately 25% that of the groundnut or soy meal, on protein equivalent basis. Under the prevailing situations, it is evident that development of a low-cost detoxification process, and use of the detoxified Jatropha seed meal as livestock feed will provide economic sustainability to the Jatropha-based oil productions system.. , Situação: Concluído; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Klaus Becker - Coordenador.

• 2006 - 2012

  DFG: Uplands Program SFB - Assessment of innovations and sustainability strategies, Descrição: The subproject uses agent-based modeling to assess the impact of innovations and to simulate changes in land use in the northern uplands of Thailand and Vietnam. For phase IV, the objectives are: First, to deepen our understanding of the complexity of upland farming systems by coupling the agent-based software MP-MAS with the software LUCIA (crop and soil fertility modeling in Vietnam) and with the software SWAT (soil and hydrology modeling in Thailand). Second, to use the software to assess policies and innovations and to make an impact at the farm household and watershed level using participatory research methods.. , Situação: Concluído; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Coordenador.

• 2005 - 2008

  CGIAR: Challenge Program on Water & Food - Integrating Governance and Modeling, Descrição: The project Integrating Governance and Modeling is one of 16 research projects directly funded by the CGIAR Challenge Program on Water & Food. The project is divided into two case studies, one located in Chile and the other in Ghana. The project s objective is to explore policy options that improve the management of water resources at the local and regional levels.. , Situação: Concluído; Natureza: Pesquisa. , Integrantes: Thomas Berger - Integrante / Nancy McCarthy - Coordenador.