From: Weili Liang
Sent: Thu 12/25/2008 8:43 PM
To: Prof. David Norman 2; David Norman
Subject: ?


Dear David,
 
Believe you and Shirley are enjoying the X'mas season. I am writing in case I would forget this issue, so please take it easy to reply me whenever you have time.
 
I am writing a training material on farming systems classification.
 
Could a recommendatin domain, group of farms, be considered as a type of farming system? or better to be considered a sub-type under a specific farming sytem?
 
Is there any difference or similarity between farm typology in your book and farming systems classification used by J. Dixon, A. Gulliver and D. Gibbon in their report "Global Farming Sytems Study: Challenges and Priorities to 2030"?
 
I intend to understand recommendation dormains as sub-types of farming systems. similarly we can also understande a type of farming system a higher level of recommendatioin domain in a typology.
 
I need your comments.
 
 
All the best
 
Weili


From: "David Norman"
To: "Weili Liang"
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 7:38 AM
Subject: RE: ?


Dear Weili
 
I hope everything is going well with you!  I am so sorry about the delay in replying to your queries.  I always seem to have e-mails I need to reply to.
 
Farming systems are often defined taking into account mainly the bio-physical element with sometimes little consideration of the socio-economic element.  A recommendation domain is usually defined as a grouping of farmers who have have similar quantities/qualities of resources, similar problems/challenges and therefore similar solutions/opportunities.  They could be analogous to farming systems that are defined in terms of both the bio-physical and socio-economic elements but it is likely most of the time there are likely to be several recommendation domains per farming system especially when they are defined primarily in terms of the bio-phsical element.
 
Unfortunately I do not have John's book at hand at the moment but if I remember correctly the major emphasis was put on the bio-physical element and relatively little on the socio-economic element.  In defence of John I think they had no choice since greater consideration of the bio-physical would have greatly increased the number of farming systems that would be defined -- impossible on a global scale.
 
I am so sorry once again for the delay in replying.  I do hope it is not too late and my comments are not too confusing! 
 
Greetings to your family!
 
Best wishes
 
David


From: Weili Liang
Sent: Wed 1/21/2009 10:00 PM
To: David Norman
Subject: Re: ?


Dear David,

Thanks a lot for your comments which are very helpful. I believe you would not reject me to paste our communication of this one, and the last one on systems agronomy, on my blog propagating FSD approaches. I am writing blog articles introducing rationale and approaches of FSD to Chinese colleagues. It needs time for technical scientists to adopt the approaches. Also, since China is special, so we need to convert the 'African version' of some details into  'Chinese version' --this also takes time.

Maybe the symposium on farming systems design to be held in California this coming August an attempt to develop a version of FSD approach adapted to large commercialized systems? I will see while I will be there.

My blog is at http://www.sciencenet.cn/blog/FSD.htm. I have dropped 3 articles there.

The year of cattle will begin on Feb 26, so wish you and Shirley a healthy and easy year of cattle!

Weili

From: "David Norman"
To: "Weili Liang"
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 10:45 PM
Subject: RE: ?


Dear Weili
 
Thanks for your e-mail.  I certainly have no problems of you putting materials on the blog.  The blog is a very good idea.  I did look it up but as would be expected -- and should be -- most of it was in mandarin.
 
All the best and keep up the good work!
 
David

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