ARS | Publication request: Farming Systems Design 2007: An International Symposium on Methodologies for Integrated Analysis of Farm Production Systems Book 1: Field-Farm Scale Design and Improvement; Book 2: Farm-Regional Scale Design and Improvement

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings/Symposium
Publication Acceptance Date: August 1, 2007
Publication Date: September 10, 2007
Citation: Donatelli, M., Hatfield, J.L., Rizzoli, A. (Editors). 2007. Farming Systems Design 2007: An International Symposium on Methodologies for Integrated Analysis of Farm Production Systems, Book 1: Field-Farm Scale Design and Improvement. Catania, Sicily, Italy: La Goliardica Pavese. 230 p.; Book 2: Farm-Regional Scale Design and Improvement. Catania, Sicily, Italy. La Goliardica Pavese. 270 p.

Technical Abstract: There is a growing interest in agricultural systems that serve multiple purposes, in the context of driving factors such as climate change, liberalization, environmental concerns, and changing agricultural institutions. Farming systems face a continuous pressure to innovate. The drivers also strongly affect agricultural and environmental policies, as these must support the sustainability of agricultural systems and their contribution to sustainable development in general. This defines a demand on research approaches that enable analysis of current farming systems, exploration and design of alternative ones as well as co-learning and dissemination strategies. These research approaches must provide capabilities for assessing the economic, environmental, and social aspects of farming system¿s evolution in different spatial and temporal contexts. Today, a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods exist, but there is a lack of integration in evaluating issues which range from strictly technical to social, and to landscape related attributes. The goals of the symposium are to: ¿ Provide an opportunity to integrate knowledge across disciplines targeted at farming system analysis, design and innovation. ¿ Compare approaches being used/developed in different research groups. ¿ Identify the available operational tools and the future research needs. The symposium has a methodological focus, and aims at both quantitative and qualitative approaches, but with a clear scope for integration across the biophysical and social domains. The symposium aims at covering a broad range of contexts, both from the developed and developing world. Papers from international scientists are presented that address field-farm scale and farm-regional scale design and improvement approaches for this symposium.