In the coming decades the world will need to more than double its food and feed production, almost all of the increase being needed in developing countries. This has socioeconomic and biophysical implications. Traditional component and commodity research addresses overly narrow issues at too small a scale. Rural development needs an eco-regional approach that integrates biophysical and socioeconomic work on cropping systems, livestock, the environment, and natural resources.
This book contains the papers, response papers and discussion report of a five-day seminar on eco-regional approaches. It assesses the state of the art of systems approaches applied to eco-regional problems, presenting and discussing a number of case studies. Future research needs are discussed, as well as ways to improve collaboration between research institutes.
The seminar on which the book is based was organised on behalf of the Directorate General for International Cooperation of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs by the Research Institute for Agrobiology and Soil Fertility (AB-DLO), the Wageningen Agricultural University (WAU), and the International Potato Centre (CIP). It was held at the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), and was attended by participants from all CGIAR centres, among others.

Section A. Eco-Regional Approaches.- Eco-regional approaches, why, what and how.- Facing the challenge of the Andean Zone: the role of modeling in developing sustainable management of natural resources.- Eco-regional approaches and Agenda 21: a policy view.- Section B. Resources Availability and Demand Studies at a Global Scale.- TargetID="10.1007/978-94-011-0121-9_4">Scenarios for land use in Europe: agro-ecological options within socio-economic boundaries.- Natural resources and limits of food production in 2040.- Prospects for world food security and distribution.- Responses.- Section C. Linking Different Scale Levels in Ecological and Economic Studies.- Agro-ecological knowledge at different scales.- Aggregating Economic Knowledge for use at national, regional, sector, and farm level.- Section D. Case Studies Of Eco-Regional Approaches at National and Regional Scale.- A systems approach to analyze production options for wheat in India.- Options for sustainable agricultural systems and policy instruments to reach them.- Sustainable agriculture in the Sahel? (integrated farming, perennials and fertilizers).- Responses.- Section E. Institutional Aspects.- Founding a systems research network for rice.- Collaboration between national, international, and advanced research institutes for eco-regional research.- Developing a R & D Model for the humid tropical eco-region in Asia.- Section F. Case Studies of Eco-Regional Approaches at the Farm/Enterprise Level.- Designing optimal crop management strategies.- Sustainability and long-term dynamics of soil organic matter and nutrients under alternative management strategies.- Evaluating policies for sustainable land use: a sub-regional model with farm types in Costa Rica.- Responses.- Section G. Case Studies of Eco-Regional Approaches at the Crop Level.- Using systems approaches to design and evaluate ideotypes for specific environments.- An eco-regional perspective of crop protection problems.- Site specific management on field level: high and low tech approaches.- Responses.- Discussions.- General discussions.- Closing panel discussion.- Acronyms.- List of participants.