1. What is an agroecosystem? • Biophysical and socioeconomic components • Boundaries and hierarchies • Structure and function • History and legacy

2. Agroecosystem checklist (1) (Brookfield et al., 2002) • Management:field types and edges; site and field surface preparation; soil and water conservation; soil fertility maintenance; planting materials; cropping patterns and rotations; weeds and weeding, pests and diseases; crop harvesting, processing, and storage; livestock; woodlots; fallow areas; wild areas

3. Agroecosystem checklist (2) (Brookfield et al., 2002) • Biophysicalstructure and processes:physical features at landscape and field levels; soil characteristics; soil erosion, degradation, and enhancement; microclimates

4. Agroecosystem checklist (3) (Brookfield et al., 2002) • Organization:land tenure; farmer gender; land ownership history; crop and tree ownership; land-use history; land-use intentions; types of livestock; off-farm employment; food security; water supplies; fuel supplies; labor supplies; transportation networks; marketing; decision-making processes

5. How do trees and other perennials fit into agroecosystems?

6. Agroecosystems are often studied as part of an effort to change them

7. The Evolution of Farming Systems Research (Hart, 2000) • Scale of target systems:from crop populations to whole farms to communities and watersheds • System performance criteria:from production to stability to sustainability • Targeted beneficiaries:from ‘small farmers’ to men and women to future generations • Relationships: recognition of hierarchies

8. Sustainability in the Context of Farming Systems Research(Hart, 2000) • A group of production technologies (e.g. cover crops) • Maintenance of the natural resource base upon which production depends • A measure of intergenerational equity

9. Participatory Rural Appraisal • ‘Empowering rather than extractive’ • Outsiders as facilitators rather than investigators • Information owned, analyzed, and used by local people rather than outsiders • Often conducted by NGOs rather than universities and government agencies

10. Prototyping Integrated and Ecological Arable Farming Systems (Vereijken, 1997) • Establish a hierarchy of objectives • Transform objectives into quantifiable performance parameters • Design and test prototypes that link socioeconomic and biophysical objectives with multi-faceted farming methods • Place prototypes on pilot farms • Refine and adapt prototypes • Disseminate prototypes to other farms

11. Components of a farm’s ‘identity card’ (Vereijken, 1997) • Abiotic environmental characteristics (soil, water, and air quality) • Non-agricultural species diversity (ecological infrastructure) • Food supply (quality and quantity) • Health and safety (including pesticide impacts) • Income and profit (farm and regional levels)

12. Farming methods for I/EAFS • Multifunctional crop rotation • Nutrient balance • Ecological infrastructure: restoration and maintenance of landscape elements • Farm structural optimization (land, labor, capital goods, technologies)

13. Principles of Agroeocosystem Analysis (Conway, 1986) • It isn’t necessary to know everything about an agroecosystem in order to produce a realistic and useful analysis (‘optimal ignorance’). • Understanding the behavior and important properties of an agroecosystem requires knowledge of only a few key functional relationships. • Producing significant improvements in the performance of an agroecosystem requires changes in only a few key management decisions. • Identification and understanding of these key relationships and decisions requires a limited number of key questions are defined and answered.

14. Tractors and water buffaloes in Sri Lanka (Senanayake, 1984; Conway, 1986) • Land area for rice vs. land for wallows and non-crop vegetation • Protein sources: buffalo milk, fish • Refugia for fish, snakes, lizards • Bund-boring crabs • Rats • Mosquitoes and malaria

15. Agroecosystem Analysis: Tools (Conway, 1986) • Diagrammatic historyof the site, including major events • Maps and transectsshowing important features, including topography, soils, land use, problems, opportunities • Seasonal calendarsfor climate, crop sequences, livestock, non-farm activities, labor requirements, capital requirements, income, monthly prices • Long-term graphsshowing prices, yields, acreages, population trends (births, deaths, emigration, immigration) • Bar diagramsshowing sources of farm income, expenses on different types of production inputs, etc. • Flow diagramsshowing production and marketing chains, flows of income • Decision treesdepicting choice points, key factors • Venn diagramsdepicting overlapping institutions affecting decision-making

22. A tentative plan (I) • Develop awareness of ecological, agronomic, and socio-economic components • Identify information needs and form information gathering groups • Identify tools for organizing and presenting information • Meet with farmers at ISU and/or on farm • Assemble information, by groups

23. A tentative plan (II) • Present information to classmates at debriefing following farm visits • ‘Triangulate’ to determine accuracy of information • Assemble conceptual models of farms as natural resource/human activity systems: system boundaries, components, interactions, feedbacks, control points • Identify key questions, hypotheses, and possible changes • Assess impacts of proposed changes: ecological, agronomic, socioeconomic

24. Some focal areas • Natural resources:soils, water sources and drainage, water quality, non-cultivated species, agricultural and non-agricultural land use • Crop and livestock systems:species, synergies and conflicts, economics, nutrient dynamics, pest management systems, calendars, buildings and machinery, product identity, target markets • Family: structure, gender issues, needs, goals, constraints, decision processes, values, off-farm jobs, land tenure, credit and debt, assets • Local community:neighbors, medical and educational services, social network, labor sources • Private and producer organizations:inputs, marketing channels, consultants, financing, information • Government: subsidies, quality assurance, regulations, information • Local and regional history and future trajectories

25. Tasks • Identify information gathering groups • Specify preferences for groups • Develop questions and framework for interviews and on-farm surveys