A tool for monitoring agricultural policies : modelling farming systems in the Caribbean

The paper deals with the elaboration of an agricultural supply model that aims at assisting policy makers to monitor the sector.[br/] The choice of the model has been determined by three main factors: 1) the scarcity of information, 2) the need to take in account the variety of farm systems and strategies, and 3) the high instability of the sector. It is, thus, the farmers’ rationale resulting in the crop combination, which is modeled through the linear programming techniques.[br/] Given the research context the elaboration of an adequate methodology is crucial. Two main points can be outlined: 1) the building of a conceptual model of the Caribbean farm household leading to the development of a mathematical programming, 2) the setting up of a system of information collection mainly involving a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional network.[br/] The first part of the paper deals with the conceptual model. The second part presents the whole methodology. Finally, the first results of the mathematical modelling are exposed