ABSTRACT
The fielding of interdisciplinary Farming Systems Research (FSR) teams for research and implementation activities is an attempt to ensure the identification and development of improved agricultural strategies which address the full range of constraints faced by farmers. In the tradition of agricultural development, social science had been largely restricted to the participation of agricultural economists. The participants in the symposium worked on FSR projects for regional and international agencies in the direct implementation of agricultural development programs. Since the 1950's, the implementation of international agricultural development projects was accompanied by a body of critical literature documenting development failures and unwanted side-effects of the development efforts. FSR is an interactive research strategy characterized not only by the use of interdisciplinary teams but also by the integration of experiment station research with socioeconomic investigations and on-farm trials of technologies in the field. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
