Tool for the Evaluation of Nutrient flows and Governance in Agroecosystems (TENGA)

This deposit presents TENGA, an agent-based model (ABM) designed to explore crop–livestock integration and agro-ecosystem dynamics in semi-arid smallholder farming systems. The model represents a village-scale farming landscape in Burkina Faso, composed of hundreds of heterogeneous farm households that interact through biophysical processes and socio-economic exchanges. TENGA explicitly couples crop production, livestock management, soil nutrient dynamics, and farmer decision-making across multiple spatial and organizational levels (plot, farm, and village). Farms differ in land endowment, herd size, labour availability, and management strategies, allowing the model to capture inequality, feedbacks, and emergent system behaviour. The model is used to investigate how management options and policy-relevant scenarios—such as fertilizer access, nitrogen-fixing legumes, crop residue and manure exchanges, and changes in herd management—affect productivity, nutrient cycling, food security, and equity over time. Sensitivity and scenario analyses highlight key drivers of system performance and trade-offs between crop and livestock components. By integrating social interactions with biophysical processes, TENGA provides a transparent, flexible simulation framework for analysing sustainability challenges in mixed farming systems and supports the design of context-specific interventions for smallholder agro-ecosystems.