This book provides a detailed history of farming systems research (FSR). While it includes the application of FSR to developed country agriculture, its main focus is on FSR in its original role, with small scale, resource-poor farmers in less developed countries. There are some 40 contributions from nearly 50 contributors from 20 countries, illustrating both the diversity and yet the coherence of FSR. The five parts of the book cover: (1) FSR - understanding farmers and their farming (FSR origins and perspectives; understanding farming systems); (2) the applications of farming systems research (FSR in technology choice and development; FSR in extension and policy formulation); (3) institutional commitment to FSR (FSR: some institutional experiences in national agricultural research; dimensions of the organization of FSR; training for FSR); (4) FSR: the professional dimension (regional and international associations; FSR and the professional disciplines); and (5) cutting edge methods, abiding issues and the future for FSR.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword / Janice Jiggens -- Chapter 1 Introduction / Mike Collinson -- Editorial Introduction / Mike Collinson -- My initiation into FSR in Latin America / German Escobar -- A personal history in FSR / Peter Hildebrand -- The evolution of FSR-E in Asia through the mid 1970s: a view from IRRI / Richard Harwood -- FSR: a personal evolution / David Norman -- My SFR origins / Mike Collinson -- FSR's expanding conceptual framework / Robert Hart -- Evolving typologies for agricultural R & D / Mike Collinson -- The development of diagnostic methods in FSR / John Farrington -- Gender analysis: making women visible and improving social analysis / Hilary Sims Feldstein -- Relating problems and causes in FSR planning / Robert Tripp -- Editorial Introduction / Mike Collinson -- The application of FSR to technology development / Ann Stroud and Roger Kirkby -- Experiences in applying FSR in semi-arid Kenya / A.J. Sutherland and J.N. Kang'ara -- Farming systems extension in the USA / Cornelia Butler Flora and Charles Francis -- The evolution of the advisory services in Chile and the role of FSR / Julio A. Berdegué -- A farming systems contribution to agricultural policy analysis / John Dixon -- The Systems Research Department at INRA / J. Bonnemaire et al. -- Senegal's experimental units / Michel Benoit-Cattin -- Twenty years of systems research in southern Mali - the Sikasso FSR experience / Willem Stoop et al. -- The institutionalization of FSR in east and southern Africa: an overview / Stuart A. Kean and M. Creasy Ndiyoi -- Institutionalizing FSR in Tanzania: a case study / Ann Stroud -- Institutionalizing FSR in Zambia: a stakeholder perspective / Stuart A. Kean and M. Creasy Ndiyoi -- Costs of on-farm research: a comparison of experiences in six countries / Elon H. Gilbert -- The history of FSR training in east, central and southern Africa / Ponniah Anandajayasekeram -- Orienting research to agricultural development: the ICRA training programme / Richard Hawkins -- A note: the story behind the 'guidelines' / William W. Shaner -- Ten years in the making: the Association for Farming Systems Research and Extension / Hal MacArthur -- Farming Systems Research and Extension in Latin America / Julio A. Berdegué -- An overview of FSR-E and FSR-E networks in Africa / James Olukosi -- The Asian Farming Systems Association / Nimal Ranweera -- Farm management and the farming systems approach / David Norman -- Anthropology, sociology and FSR / Constance M. McCorkle -- Agronomy and FSR - a reluctant marriage? / Peter Hildebrand and Dennis Keeney -- Holism and FSR / Toon van Eijk -- The GIS and remote sensing contribution to the elaboration of system hierarchies in FSR / Evaristo Miranda -- FSR from a modelling perspective : experiences in Latin America / Roberto A. Quiroz et al. -- Moving participatory plant breeding forward : the next steps / Louise Sperling and Jacqueline A. Ashby -- Agroecosystems analysis : a systems application with a future? / Clive Lightfoot -- Water quality, agricultural practices and changes in farming and agrarian systems / J.P. Deffontaines, et al. -- Chapter 12 The Future of Farming Systems Research / Mike Collinson and Clive Lightfoot.

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Title from PDF title page (viewed August 23, 2013).