A farm diagnosis support. A model and method for global diagnosis

摘要

Along with knowledge in expert system generators, the Systems approach to farm operations and management opened a new field in farm diagnostics and decision-making. The present paper describes the general methodology of farm diagnosis we formalized following a long interdisciplinary practice and a three-year research programme carried out for the French Ministry or Agriculture. The method is based on fast, on-the-spot surveys and expert opinion, and arranges the strengths and weaknesses of the farming System a round seven analytical constructs. Efficiency and sustainability, the first two, are the operating system’s main qualifies, complemented in turn by security, flexibility and self-sufficiency. The last two, technical control and management quality, concern the farmer’s management abilities and provide information on his ability to manipulate the system’s various components and manage the entire production process. Modelling a farm system involves three sub-systems : decision-making, operating and information. The operating system combines a number of components : economics, organization and management of work, technical (crops, livestock and forage), and fixed production factors. Each ?? analytical construct/component ?? combination is a basic diagnostic module, defines a cognitive task, and is described by a limited number of either quantitatively or qualitatively ordered indicators. Computing facilitated the formalization of the various expert-diagnosis steps and the links with sets of local references. A computerized pilot system was designed and adapted to dairy farmers belonging to an accountancy management service. The original feature of the approach lies in modelling the diagnosis into topics (analytical constructs) applicable to farming system components. It has already been used for farm assessment under the ?? development plan for sustainable agriculture ?? programme, by rural advisors as well as agricultural students who soon learned to adapt it to cattle-rearing or wine-producing farms. New analytical constructs corresponding to environmental problems or CAP reforms are also available.