In recent years there has been a growing demand for a more
multidisciplinary and holisric content to agricultural research
and development and for the formulation of methods by which this
can be acheived. Farming systems research and integrated rural
development are two responses to this demand but, in common with
other multidisciplinary approaches, they face the problem of
trying to encompass a breadth of expertise while at the same time
generating a common agreement on worthwhile practical ,%ction.
Resort to bureaucratic methods or to formal systems analysis is
unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. The procedure of agroecosystem
analysis which is described and illustrated here steers
a middle course, combining a rigorous framework with sufficient
flexibility to encourage genuine interdisciplinary interaction.
This procedure has been designed and tested in several workshops
held in Thailand over the past five years.
At the heart of the procedure are the concepts of the
system, system hierarchies, system properties and the agroecosystem.
The participarts begin by defining the objectives of
the analysis and the relevant systems, their boundaries and
hierarchic arrangement. This is followed by pattern analysis, the
systems being analysed by all the participating disciplines in
terms of space, time, flows and decisions. These patterns are
important in determining the important system properties of agroecosystems,
namely productivity, stability, nustainability and
equitability. The outcome of the analyses are a set of agireed ke"
questions for future research or alternatively a set of tentative
guidelines for development.