MULTIFUNCTIONAL AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

The aim of the present paper is to design a choice model for agricultural land use, in which the demand for both nutrients and bio-fuels is taken into consideration. To that end, we employ an AEM (Agricultural Economy Model) as part of a broader integrated environmental sustainability system. The AEM model in the present paper is oriented towards an application to agricultural land use in Japan. Based on an extensive data collection effort, the model is tested by means of various dynamic simulation experiments using the STELLA software. The results are interesting and demonstrate that: (i) the current energy demand in Japan exceeds the country’s present energy capacity and potential; (ii) Japan tends to extract energy mainly from carbohydrates and next from proteins. The robustness of the model results is tested through various sensitivity analyses.