Biological and physiological systems: animal sciences. Plant-animal interactions in northern temperate sown grasslands and semi-natural vegetation. Exploitation of the systems approach in technical design of agricultural enterprises. Application of systems theory to farm planning and control: modelling resource allocation. Optimising the mixture of enterprises in a farming system. Farming systems research-extension. Food policy and food security planning: institutional approaches to modelling grain markets and food security in Sub-Saharn Africa. A systems view of commercial supply and marketing links. Agroecosystems. Understanding and managing changes in agriculture. Agricultural sector modelling for policy development. Of agricultural systems and systems agriculture: systems methodologies in agricultural education. Extension education: Top(s) Down, Bottom(s) Up and Other Things.

The symposium In the next decades, agriculture will have to cope with an ever-increasing demand for food and raw basic materials on the one hand, and with the necessity to use resources without further degrading or exhausting the environment on the other hand, and all this within a dynamic framework of social and economic conditions. Intensification, sustainability, optimizing scarce resources, and climate change are among the key issues. Organized thinking about future farming requires forecasting of consequences of alternative ways to farm and to develop agriculture. The complexity of the problems calls for a systematic approach in which many disciplines are integrated. Systems thinking and systems simulation are therefore indispensable tools for such endeavours. About 150 scientists and senior research leaders participated in the symposium 'Systems Approaches for Agricultural Development' (SAAD) at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok, Thailand, in December 1991. The symposium had the following objectives: - to review the status of systems research and modeling in agriculture, with special reference to evaluating their efficacy and efficiency in achieving research goals, and to their application in developing countries; - to promote international cooperation in modeling, and increase awareness of systems research and simulation. The symposium consisted of plenary sessions with reviews of major areas in systems approaches in agriculture, plus presentations in two concurrent sessions on technical topics of systems research. Subjects of studies were from tropical and temperate countries.

What defines a sustainable food system? How can it be more inclusive? How do local and global scales interact and how does power flow within food systems? How to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to realizing sustainable food systems? And how to activate change? These questions are considered by EU and North American academics and practitioners in this book. Using a wide range of case studies, it provides a critical overview, showing how and where theory and practice can converge to produce more sustainable food systems.

Offers a treatment of modern applications of modelling and simulation in crop, livestock, forage/livestock systems, and field operations. The book discusses methodologies from linear programming and neutral networks, to expert or decision support systems, as well as featuring models, such as SOYGRO, CROPGRO and GOSSYM/COMAX. It includes coverage on evaporation and evapotranspiration, the theory of simulation based on biological processes, and deficit irrigation scheduling.

This book is about resource allocation matters with the aim to further development thoughts and models on resource allocation applied to livestock production. It contains 18 chapters divided into 4 parts which discuss resources and resource allocation patterns, trade-offs, metabolic constraints to resource allocation and the process of homeorhesis with a special emphasis to homeorhesis during heat stress; the relationship between food intake and resources allocated to body maintenance, growth, reproduction and the immune response; the consequences of high production efficiency in pigs, poultry and dairy cattle and the consequences of improved production by means of biological engineering and options to include resource allocation matters in the breeding objective, animal welfare and in resource allocation modelling.

Whole Grains and Health presents a science-based discussion of whole grains and their expanding role in health and disease. An international collection of authors presents current perspectives on grains, the many opportunities for further research into whole grains and the remarkable growth potential for product development. Coverage includes discussions on the health benefits of a diet rich in whole grains, the functional components of whole grains and the regulatory nuances of labeling grain products. A unique feature is a section devoted to communicating with consumers. Barriers exist which affect consumer acceptance and use of whole-grain foods. Whole Grains and Health addresses those concerns and offers strategies for furthering research, product development and educational outreach.