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Proceedings of the 1st European Convention on Farming Systems Research and Extension, held in Edinburgh in October 1993. The book was edited by Barry Dent and Murray McGregor and published by CABI (ISBN 0 85198 9144).

The Farming Systems Research and Extension approach adopts a multidimensional perspective and has been widely used to bring about rural change in many developing countries. The approach has traditionally been less used in Europe where research has tended to concentrated on increasing production. However, with the current emphasis within the European Union on restricting surpluses and on environmental and social protection, circumstances are more conducive to the farming systems approach. Changes in rural infrastructures and agricultural production in Central and Eastern Europe may also favour the approach.

This book is the first to define the issues of farming systems research as they might be applied within a European context and extended to rural systems as a whole. Consisting of 27 chapters, it is divided into five parts:
1. Conceptual background
2. Contextual setting
3. Alternative production systems
4. Understanding farm households
5. Systems methodologies
Contributions are included from UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Finalnd, Estonia and Greece.

Unfortunately the full-text of the individual chapters cannot be offered for download, due to copyright issues.

Table of Content and Foreword