Aim

Agricultural systems serve multiple purposes and function at multiple levels. Great concern exists throughout the world regarding such factors as energy use and production, water use and availability, climate change, food supply and prices, diet quality, environmental management, and changing agricultural institutions. The development of innovative farming systems to meet these growing concerns and often competing interests is becoming an essential international issue. Farming systems are more than ever expected to be environmentally sustainable, economically feasible, and socially acceptable. The impact of these factors on agricultural and environmental policies, as these must support the sustainability of agricultural systems and their contribution to sustainable development in general, is also of importance. From this perspective, research approaches must enable analysis of current farming systems, exploration and design of alternative farming systems, and define co-learning and dissemination strategies. Today, a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods exist, but there is a lack of integration in evaluating issues ranging from strictly technical to social and across scales from site to landscape. Thus, new research approaches must provide capacities for assessing the economic, environmental, and social aspects of farming system progression within different spatial and temporal scales.

The development and application of simulation models to extend information across spatial and temporal scenarios are a central focus of this symposium. 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 by different research groups
• Identify the available operational tools and assess future research needs
• Strengthen the information exchange among the international community involved in these research and outreach efforts.

The symposium has a methodological focus aimed 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.

This meeting is intended for a broad audience of scientists, agribusiness, public sector, and consultants to exchange ideas, findings, and information on farming systems.