Session C-4

Title:                            Systems analysis informing policy – case studies from agricultural systems and rural regions in the face of change

Session organisers:    Brian Keating (CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems, Australia), Pablo Tittonell (CIRAD, France)

Keynote speaker:        David Pannell (University of Western Australia, Australia)

Scope of the session: Session will provide case studies from around the world where groups have used ‘systems analysis’ or ‘integrated assessment’ to explore policy issues in the face of major drivers of change influencing agricultural systems or regions – these could be economic drivers affecting agricultural viability, they could be environmental drivers shaping agricultural practices or systems (e.g. soil degradation or reduced water supply), or they could be socio-political drivers such as the changes in eastern European agriculture over the last decade. They could also touch on systems analysis of the pathways out of poverty for developing country agriculture.