research into agricultural systems and practices ranging from the science of plant and animal production to rural policy and decision-making; with a focus on alternative crops, food and nutrition, farmer health, local knowledge and rural development. **research areas** agricultural systems with specialisations in: - sustainable development - agricultural ecology - trade-offs between output of land and the needs of local people - relationship between systems of food production and ecology of plants and animals - farm, forest and environmental valuation - accounting and appraisal - physiology and agronomy of temperate and tropical cereals, root crops and oilseeds - peri-urban farming systems