An emerging model of a systems agriculturalist

This paper describes the development of a conceptual model of agriculture at the Faculty of Agriculture, Hawkesbury Agricultural College, during the early 1980s. The model was a tool in a learning/researching process that was driven by the increasing complexity of problems/issues facing Australian agriculture over that period. The path took us from seeing agriculture as a science discipline-focused, mechanistic view of agriculture to a systemic model that incorporated people as an essential component. The phases that we went through included: ‘agriculture as a production activity’, ‘agriculture as applied ecology’, ‘agriculture as a mechanical (hard) system’, and ‘agriculture as a human activity system’. Each phase was incorporated into the next so that the final model was able to be usefully used in approaching on-farm scientific and technical issues, managerial and information flow/communication issues, and social and cultural issues. It also placed farming as an activity within the wider social and biophysical environment, which encouraged study of the impact of agriculture on the soil and water resources as well as the fate of rural communities. The model was generated through a process of action research and thus was consistent with the growing educational philosophy of the Faculty. It was a collaborative process that drew on the expertise of members of the Faculty and on a wide range of literature. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.