The purposes of field-crop ecosystems : social and economic aspects

We hold to three positions in the context of the further development of patterns of cropping around the world. Firstly we believe that the fieldcrop ecosystem perspective is a most valuable way of analysing the feasibility and desirability of development. We also hold to the view that an epistemology, by which we mean the way we may gain and express knowledge of the world, based on systems thinking (Checkland, 1981 ), has utility in this context. As systems thinking has produced a range of concepts and language of its own the main concepts are defined in Table 2.1. Finally we subscribe to the belief that the way in which fieldcrop ecosystems are viewed has to be extended to include fully the influence of humans within the ecosystems, in the environments in which the ecosystems exist and within the whole system-environment complex. This chapter explores field-crop ecosystems as purposeful, self-regulating entities: systems of interacting components which combine both concrete realities and abstract concepts. This is a viewpoint far removed from that which pictures agricultural systems as perversions of the natural order: sets of human interventions which disturb the previously well-balanced, well-organized and harmonious world of natural ecosystems.