FSD is an informal interdisciplinary scientific community of practice to promote research and capacity building on farming systems design.

The core is science: “The research focus of the FSD community is the farm system level, the interactions and feedbacks at lower and higher levels of integration and the tools and methods required for understanding and implementing multi-functional farming systems expressing good trade-offs between agricultural production and ecosystems services ”.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

One of the specific targets of Agro2015 / FSD5 conference is to widen the interdisciplinary coverage of the FSD community, beyond the original core of agronomists and crop modelers. We particularly welcome contributions from animal science (including fisheries), economy, sociology, geography, ecology, management science, knowledge science, computer science…provided that they contribute to the advancement of science on farming systems analysis, assessment or design. 

Scope of the conference

Any type of agricultural and aquacultural systems can be taken into account (including urban agriculture, greenhouse agriculture), from any part of the world, provided it contributes to the development of the FSD approach or to the demonstration of the effectiveness of a method to design farming systems.

Any challenge for agricultural systems can be addressed (food security, adaptation to climate change, sustainable intensification, bio-based economy, poverty alleviation…) provided they are addressed with an approach relevant to FSD.

Any level (between field and territory) can be considered provided there is a consideration of scaling/integration issues at the farm level or a multiscale system’s approach of agricultural systems. This implies that research conducted at field or animal level without integration in a design process at farm or territory level or a multi-scale system’s analysis will not be accepted for FSD5. An exception will be made for field experiments or surveys on farmers practices which contribute to the development of quantitative methods for agricultural systems comparisons and information systems (see TO3 topic).

A large range of disciplines is aimed to be shared during the conference (crop science, animal science, fish science, ecology, economy, geography, sociology, modelling…) provided that they address scientific questions related to farming systems analysis, assessment or design.

Objective of this call

In order to favor interactions among participants (on concepts and methods, on international projects…), the policy of FSD is to keep the size of its biennial conferences to a reasonable number of participants (set to 400 for FSD5 in Montpellier), with a priority to scientists who contribute to the development of the FSD science or who are in a process of capacity building in this domain.

This call for contributions (300 word abstract) aims to identify participants who will be further asked to submit a 2-page paper to be published in the Agro2015/FSD5 proceedings. Keynotes, oral presentations and workshop chairs will be identified by the Agro2015/FSD5 scientific committee among these 2-page papers. Some of these authors may also be invited to submit a full paper in the special issues of Agricultural Systems and European Journal of Agronomy to be edited for this conference.

Abstract submission process

The 300 word abstract should contain enough information to identify which concept, method and application is going to be developed in the paper and the nature of the data to be used. To help in the review process each abstract should be submitted with the indication of a preferred position (i.e. the position claimed in priority by the authors) in a matrix structure crossing a thematic novelty and an applied topic.

If you already have an account on SciencesConf.org, you can directly log in using your settings. If you do not already have an account on SciencesConf, you have first to create an account (free) and fill out the form. Once you have logged on, you can submit a contribution using the submission form.

Thematic novelty (TN) - To be indicated in the "comment" text field of the submission form

• TN 1: Novel methods to analyze or design farming systems.
• TN 2: Novel farming systems knowledge and information systems (even if obtained with old methods).
• TN 3: Success stories in Farming Systems Design and lessons from implementation in practice (including analysis of unsuccessful applications).
• TN 4: Emerging challenges in FSD.

Applied Topics (TO): - To be ticked on the list in the submission form

• TO 1: Quantitative analysis and comparison of farming systems structures and functions.
• TO 2: Designing adaptive, productive and/or diversified multi-service farming systems
• TO 3: Methods for scaling up from farm to territorial and global analysis
• TO 4: Scaling out: design, testing and adaptative management with stakeholders.
• TO 5: Supporting policy decisions with farming system trade-off and scenario analysis.

See details on topics: http://fsd5.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/2
These novelties and topics will not necessarily correspond to a specific session during the conference.

The submission of the 2-page paper will be open only from December 16, 2014 for accepted abstracts

Important dates

• December 15, 2014: Deadline for submission of 300 word abstracts. Authors will be informed of acceptance in the two months following the date of their submission and asked to submit a 2-page paper (or a full paper for the special issues).
• December 16, 2014: Opening of the online submission for the 2-page paper (for authors whose 300 word abstract has been accepted).
• March 15, 2015: Deadline for submission of the 2-page paper
• May 30, 2015: Final acceptance of the 2-page paper after the review process (final acceptance of keynotes and oral presentations)