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Rainfed lowland rice production in lower Northeast Thailand is a complex and adaptive farming activity. Complexity arises from interconnections between multiple and intertwined processes, affected by harsh climatic and soil conditions, cropping practices and labor migrations. Having faced a spatially heterogeneous and dynamic environment for centuries, local rice farmers are very adaptive and are used to adjusting their behavior in unpredictable climatic and economic conditions. Better understanding is needed to manage the key interactions between labor, land and water use for rice production, especially when major investments in new water infrastructure are now being considered. Based on the principles of the iterative and evolving Companion Modeling (ComMod) approach, indigenous and academic knowledge was integrated in an Agent-Based Model (ABM) co-designed with farmers engaged in different …