African Farmer is a free educational game which simulates the lives of small-scale farmers living in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The life of these farmers is characterised by uncertainty. The vagaries of weather, the risk of crop pests and disease, the unpredictability of markets and other chance events, combine to create an environment in which livelihood security is extremely fragile.
The goal of African Farmer is to give players an understanding of the experience of farmers living in this complex, risk-prone environment.
Players manage a household in a small farming community, and must make decisions on what crops to grow, when to plant them, and how to respond to crop pests and unpredictable weather. They need to manage labour and provide their growing family with a healthy diet, or they may become ill and be unable to work. A more detailed description of the game can be found here.
To get you started, comprehensive documentation and video tutorials explaining key aspects of the game have been created, and the game includes integrated help options.
The game and all documentation can be downloaded here.
If you have any questions or problems, please contact us at [email protected].
UPDATE: African Farmer version 2.2 released
A new release of the game is available for download.
Version 2.2 updates the weather system with a new 'Late Rains' weather category and modified weather probabilities. The Climate Change option has been revised so the detrimental effects of climate change increase with each passing year. The handling of household closures is improved and there are various small enhancements to the User Interface.
See the Release Notes for a full list of the updates and bug fixes.
