 Conceptualising farming systems for agricultural development research: Cases from Eastern and Southern AfricaStephen Whitfield, Jami L. Dixon, Brian Mulenga and Hambulo Ngoma Agricultural Systems, 2015, vol. 133, issue C, 54-62 Abstract: In the context of broad scale system changes (e.g. climate change) and the prioritisation of impact-at-scale development, there is a particular need for farming systems research (FSR) to improve our understanding of the links between systems at multiple scales. Drawing on three empirical case studies of large-scale agricultural interventions in eastern and southern Africa, we highlight problems that arise from conceiving and justifying interventions on the basis of the simple aggregation of farms into large collective systems. We review changes in the approach and concepts of FSR and point to the value of farming systems concepts that go beyond these aggregations, and find ways to capture the multi-level system dynamics that link on-farm decision making to broader political, social, and environmental changes. Recent attempts at more accurately conceptualising the domain of FSR, and drawing distinctions between ‘farms’, ‘systems’, and ‘systems of farming’, represent a useful contribution to such work. Keywords: Farm and farming systems; Eastern and Southern Africa; Agricultural change; Concepts (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:agisys:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:54-62 DOI: 10.1016/j.agsy.2014.09.005 Access Statistics for this article Agricultural Systems is currently edited by J.W. Hansen, P.K. Thornton and P.B.M. Berentsen More articles in Agricultural Systems from Elsevier |
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