Agriculture Policy Simulation Game
The challenge: lead your people to prosperity in a developing country with a growing population, fragile food supply, and a changing climate that threatens the agriculture sector.
In Agritopia, a lively role-playing game for groups, participants will debate agricultural policy and learn their decisions’ effects on the country’s future. Agritopia allows participants to explore the interconnected dynamics of economic development, agriculture policy, and climate change. It uses an interactive computer model, the Agriculture and Land Policy Simulator (ALPS), to rapidly analyze the results of the decisions made during the event.
All the materials and tools for Agritopia are available for free, and we encourage you to host an Agritopia game yourself.
How does it work?
Agritopia takes about 1.5 hours to play and requires at least 5 participants, with 1 or 2 facilitators to lead the game. Participants role play as the leaders of the African country of Agritopia and form 5 interest groups, each led by a government Minister who speaks for the group.
Each group has a certain amount of political power, represented by colored tokens, that they can “spend” on policies that are favorable to their interests. In two rounds of play, groups must negotiate amongst themselves and with other groups to achieve their policy goals. After each round, the policies chosen by the participants are tested with the ALPS computer model to determine their consequences for the country, for the climate, and for the groups themselves.
Materials
Agritopia is free to play, and all materials are available for download. You will need the Vensim Model reader, available free from Ventana Systems. The package of materials contents are described below.
Download both of these software links:
(required for ALPS model)
(all materials and ALPS model for facilitators and participants)
Included in the Materials Package:
- Agritopia Version of ALPS
- Facilitator Guide
- Presentation Slides in PowerPoint
- Game Board (prints on 6 letter size pages, arrange per the Guide)
- Briefing Sheets for each interest group:
- Climate
- Economy
- Food Security
- Forest
- Water
- Calculation Sheet (give one copy to each group to as an aid)
- Name Tags (sized for standard badge holders – or make your own)
- Table Tents (letter size to fold in half – or make your own)
- Tokens (cut out 60 tokens, or use your own)
Optional materials:
- Table cloths in team colors, to help identify the teams
- 60 Multi-colored tokens – 12 each in 5 colors.
Printed tokens are
provided to cut out but plastic ones are more durable