Production Systems

Semi-arid production systems: are found in regions where the mean monthly temperature is above 18°C and where there is one or more season during which evapo-transpiration exceeds precipitation. Although the mean rainfall is in the range of 400 - 1,200 mm, lack of water is a major constraint to production. These regions often have high populations of small-scale farmers and occupy large areas of developing countries.

High potential production systems: are found in regions characterised by amenable climate (temperature, rainfall) supplemented by irrigation where rainfall is erratic or unfavourable, and fertile soils with no inherent structural and physico-chemical constraints. Renewable Natural Resource (RNR) based economic growth is often focused in the high potential systems and these regions offer opportunities for improving rural employment.

Hillsides production systems: are found in regions typically over 200 metres elevation and are characterised by steep slopes. Lack of rainfall is not normally a major constraint to production but excessive rainfall can cause problems of runoff and impair slope stability. Soils are variable but often fragile, subject to erosion, and are often of low inherent fertility.

The Tropical moist forest system is defined as those areas which receive not less than 100 mm of rain in any month for two out of three years with a mean annual temperature of 24°C or more. They are generally low lying with a closed canopy. Tropical Moist forests are subdivided into tropical rain forest and tropical moist deciduous forest.

Interfaces

Interfaces are those areas whose different production systems merge to create regions in which the influences of each can be identified. An interface is not a significant boundary or dividing line but is best defined as ‘region of influence’. There are particular environmental and/or resource management pressures and socio-economic pressures in these regions.

The Forest-Agriculture interface is characterised by the coexistence of these two different land-use patterns or habitat types. Such co-existence can be spatial, e.g. agricultural practices at forest margins, and pockets of agriculture within forest areas (or vice versa), or they may be temporal, where habitats and land-use patterns have changed (or may change) within relatively short timescales and where the legacy of previous patterns of land use may influence sustainability of subsequent patterns, e.g. agricultural production systems on land previously under natural forest in the humid forest belt in West Africa.

The peri-urban interface is characterised by strong urban influences, easy access to markets, services and other inputs, and ready supplies of labour, but a relative shortage of land and increased risks from pollution and urban growth.

The Land-water Interface is characterised by the interactions between aquatic resource systems and terrestrial animals. Land-water interfaces can be temporal, including seasonal floodplains with alternating patterns of production, or spatial, including permanent water bodies, rivers and coastal zones.

Cross-Cutting Production Systems

The category of Cross-Cutting Production Systems builds on the above Interfaces, and recognises the importance of promoting greater linkages between and across different production systems, as well as recognising the value of existing practical linkages between these systems. For example, it is important to reecognise the benefits of crop-livestock systems, including crop residues as livestock fodder and the use of manure as a valuable fertilizer. Similarly, there are linkages between crop-livestock-aquaculture systems and crop-livestock-forestry systems. Cross-cutting systems also enable to importance of environmental, social and economic issues, opportunities and constraints to be considered and accounted for in an optimal manner, as well as the importance of emerging critical issues such as climate change.

Farming Systems

Categories of Farming System used in the descriptions of these clusters of research projects are similar to those used by FAO. The Farming Systems defined in research project clusters include:

• Smallholder rainfed humid
• Irrigated
• Wetland rice based
• Smallholder rainfed highland
• Smallholder rainfed dry/cold
• Dualistic
• Coastal artisanal fishing

The FAO Farming System categories are described and used within the FAO's TECA site. TECA is a farming systems based initiative of proven technologies for smallholders, and includes the following categories and short descriptions:

• irrigated farming systems, embracing a broad range of food and cash crop production,
• wetland rice based farming systems, dependent upon monsoon rains supplemented by irrigation,
• rainfed farming systems in humid areas of high resource potential, characterised by a crop activity (notably root crops, cereals, industrial tree crops - both small scale and plantation - and commercial horticulture) or mixed crop-livestock systems,
• rainfed farming systems in steep and highland areas, which are often mixed crop-livestock systems,
• rainfed farming systems in dry or cold low potential areas, with mixed crop-livestock and pastoral systems merging into sparse and often dispersed systems with very low current productivity or potential because of extreme aridity or cold,
• dualistic (mixed large commercial and small holder) farming systems, across a variety of ecologies and with diverse production patterns,
• coastal artisanal fishing, often mixed farming systems, and
• urban based farming systems, typically focused on horticultural and livestock production.

A useful web page with an introduction to TECA and brief descriptions and of these farming systems is available at http://www.fao.org/sd/teca/newsletter/A1/default_N01_en.asp.
More detailed descriptions of Farming Systems are available in the book Farming Systems and Poverty. Improving Farmers' Livelihoods in a Changing World, by John Dixon and Aidan Gulliver with David Gibbon. This is available in both PDF and html format at http://www.fao.org/farmingsystems/.