S U M M A R YPlant breeders cannot respond to every quirk of farmers' circumstances but the relevance of breeding research in poor nations can be improved. Recent innovations in germplasm screening programmes for developing nations highlight important differences in selection criteria between farmers and scientists, and among farmers themselves. Drawing on the authors' African experience with International Agricultural Research Centres working on maize and potatoes, the paper explores how breeding programmes benefit from an understanding of farmers' own detailed knowledge about the crop varieties they already cultivate. Issues considered include farmers' use of cultivar diversity, the trade-off between yield and maturity class as selection criteria, defining appropriate experimental conditions, and innovative techniques to increase farmer participation in germplasm screening.Angelique Haugerud y Michael P. Collinson: Plantas, genes y personas: mejoramiento de la pertinencia de la fitoseleccion en Africa. RESUMENLos fitomejoradores no pueden responder a cada peculiaridad de las circunstancias de los agricultores, pero se puede mejorar la pertinencia de la investigation de la fitoseleccion en las naciones pobres. Las recientes innovaciones en los programas de selection de germoplasma para las naciones en vi'as de desarrollo destacan importantes diferencias en los criterios de selection entre agricultores y cienti'ficos y entre los mismos agricultores. Basandose en la experiencia de los autores con los centros internacionalesde investigation agn'cola en Africa, en sus estudios del mai'z y la papa, este trabajo explora como pueden beneficiarse los programas de fitoseleccion del entendimiento de los conocimientos detallados de los propios agricultores sobre las variedades de cultivos que ya producen. Entre los temas contemplados se encuentran el aprovechamiento por parte de los agricultores de la diversidad de cultivares, la compensation entre rendimiento y clase de madurez como criterio para la selection, la definition de las condiciones experimentales apropiadas y las tecnicas innovadoras para incrementar la participation del agricultor en la selection de germoplasma.

This chapter takes up the issues identified in the earlier parts of the book and builds a prognosis for the future of farming systems research (FSR). Sections discuss: the FSR process; milestones in concepts and practice from 1970; the scope of FSR; the issue of poor FSR performance; participation and FSR; FSR and the research and development process; contemporary best practice; FSR organization; the context for the future application of FSR; country characteristics and the place of FSR in R&D; enabling trends and potential barriers; future impact; and promotional strategies.

Procedures for better decision making in agricultural research are considered. Fanning Systems Adaptive Research (FSAR) has evolved to complement the more traditional research approach, allowing better decisions to be made on recommendations to farmers and on priorities for technical research. This is done through the identification of research results most relevant to the development of specific fanning systems; the testing of these results by experiments in farmers' • fields; and the identification of factors limiting productivity in local farming systems.FSAR involves interdisciplinary cooperation between production agronomists, farm economists and, where appropriate, animal production scientists, in close cooperation with other production specialists and with farmers.M. P. Collinson: Investigation de sistemas de cultivos: Procedimientos para el desarrollo de la tecnologia.R E S U M E N Se consideran los procedimientos para una mejor toma de decisiones en la investigacion agraria. La Investigacion Adaptiva de Sistemas de Agricultura (FSAR) ha evolucionado para complementar el enfoque mas tradicional de la investigacion, permitiendo que se tomen mejores decisiones sobre las recomendaciones a los agricultores y sobre las prioridades para la investigacion tecnica. Esto se hace mediante la identification de los resultados de la investigacion que son mas pertinentes al desarrollo de sistemas de cultivos especi'ficos; la prueba de estos resultados mediante experimentos en los campos del agricultur; y la identification de factores que limitan la productividad en sistemas de cultivos locales.La FSAR implica la colaboracion interdisciplinaria entre agronomos de production, economistas de granja y, donde corresponda, cienti'ficos en la production animal, en estrecha colaboracion con otros especialistas en la production y con agricultores. This paper looks at Farming Systems Research (FSR) procedures for better decision making in agricultural research. This use of FSR has been termed 'onfarm research with a farming systems perspective (OFR/FSP)' in the literature (Simmonds, 1985). It has recently been re-named FSAR -'Farming Systems Adaptive Research' by an earlier author in this series (Sands, 1986) and for consistency this terminology is used here. FSAR has evolved in response to the poor rates of adoption of research results among small farmers. Its function is to complement the more traditional research approach, allowing better decision making on recommendations to farmers and on priorities for technical research. This complementary role is achieved through: the identification of the results of technical research most relevant to the current and future development of local specific farming systems; the testing and adaptation of these results in t Present address: CGIAR,

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