Quick+Start+-+Decisions

 Quick Start: Making Decisions
= = The MV Sim has tabs to help you organize your decision-making. Each tab has boxes where you can enter your choices. Once you are satisfied with all your choices, click on **End turn**. The decisions associated with each tab are summarized below, beginning with family actions and followed by village actions.


 * If subsistence was not met in the previous season, decide how to divide food among your individual family members.


 * Decide whether to send individual family members to see a doctor. A doctor visit can improve health.
 * You may adjust the daily hours of labor for each family member. The maximum daily labor for a non-pregnant adult is 12 hours.
 * Once Fatou has attained the age of 20, she can attempt to have a child.


 * Divide family labor into the following tasks: farming, fishing, fuel wood collection, water collection, and small business.
 * If you choose to farm, decide for each plot whether to plant maize or cotton.
 * Total family labor equals the combined labor of all family members. You start the simulation with 2 adults, each capable of working 12 hours per day for a total of 24 hours of family labor.


 * Your available family finances include loans from the microfinance bank in addition to your income from productive tasks.
 * You may invest in capital for a small business. Investing in capital will increase your small business returns.
 * You may borrow money from the microfinance bank to invest in capital, or to increase the value of your family fund.


 * You can use your family fund to buy family improvements.
 * Fertilizer improves your maize and cotton yields
 * High yield seeds improve your maize yields.
 * A  boat and/or dragnet improve your fishing yields.
 * An improved wood stove or propane stove and tank can reduce or eliminate your consumption of fuel wood.
 * A bednet may protect your family in the event of a malaria epidemic.




 * You can use the village fund to buy village improvements.
 * Many of the village improvements are costly, so your village may receive an offer of aid to help it acquire an improvement.


 * Decide whether to set a limit on the number of fish a family can catch in a season. This may help prevent a collapse of the village fishery.
 * Decide whether to set a limit on the amount of fuel wood that a family can collect in a season. This may help prevent deforestation and loss of fuel wood resources.
 * Increase the value of the village fund by adjusting the tax rate.

 Return to the previous page, Quick Start Guide. = = 