A presentation from the WCCA 2011 event held in Brisbane, Australia.

1. Integrated assessment of farming systems
Categorising Diversity, Simulating Trade-offs,
Communicating Results
(part 1; part 2 during the Field Day)

2. Program 1.30 pm – 3.00 pm, Plaza 4
 Introduction: Walter Rossing (5’)
 Categorising farm diversity: Santiago Lopez-
Ridaura (15’)
 Simulating trade-offs: Daniel Rodriguez (15’)
 Communicating results for innovation: Santiago
Dogliotti (15’)
 Where to from here: discussion (40’)
 Rapporteur Argyris Kanellopoulos
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011

3. Workshop objectives
 To discuss and explore
 Farm typologies to categorize farms and their
performance (‘Categorizing farm diversity’)
 Models that mimic farms to generate new actionable
information (‘Simulating trade-offs’)
 Ways in which model results are used to contribute to
co-innovation (‘Communicating results for innovation’)
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011

4. Categorizing Diversity
Van der Ploeg et at. 2009, JEM
1969
1969-1981
 Are typologies based on salient farm characteristics?
 Expert knowledge and participatory rankings versus
formal multivariate methods?
 Use of typologies in scaling up and scaling out?
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011

5. Simulating Trade-offs
Calculated solutions Scenario studies Optimization Pareto based exploration
in white
Objective 2
Area of possible
solutions Objective 1
 Results and purposes: scenarios, trade-offs, blueprints?
 System specification and saliency?
 Sense and nonsense of validation?
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011

6. Communicating Results
 Communicating results or co-construction?
 Do different audiences require different methods?
 Consequences for the way we design projects?
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011

7. Propositions to kick you off into the discussion:
 Farm models are a boundary object: they help us to
understand farmer behaviour and they help farmers to
see consequences of possible actions
 In decision making we all are satisficers rather than
optimisers: so why all this emphasis on optimization?
 The purpose determines not only the model but also
the social process that a project should develop
Workshop Integrated Assessment of Farming Systems
Brisbane 27 September 2011