patterns of rainfed and irrigated crops, animal 

 species, and fish cultures exist which can meet the 

 total needs of a family of six on as little as 0.75 

 hectare of steep land. The factors that make for 

 successful small farming in these areas are still 

 little understood. 



Thus the application of current technology must go 

 hand-in-hand with formal study of farming systems 

 options and their consequences. When integrated with 

 practice, such studies should lead to continuous 

 feedback that leads to progressively more relevant 

 research. 



We stress that new farming practices must meet the 

 test of maintaining or improving the economic status of 

 the farm family. New practices often call for 

 complementary changes — economic infrastructure such as 

 credit or transportation, as well as new products such 

 as fertilizers, pesticides, improved seeds, and farm 

 machinery — the lack of which could limit implementation 

 of suggested farming systems. In addition, 

 conventional modes of farming, community laws, and 

 national laws frequently inhibit change because of the 

 established property relationships associated with land 

 and water. These constraints argue for striving to 

 find catalysts for change, a primary task for farm 

 planning and management. 



Ongoing Work 



The United States has the technology for 

 effectively evaluating natural resources and an 

 excellent organizational system for applying this 

 technology. Within USDA, the 40-year experience of 

 SCS, in cooperation with the National Cooperative Soil 

 Survey, is extensive and unexcelled in integrating 

 physical-biological information into watershed and farm 

 plans for land and water conservation. Although SCS 

 began as an erosion control agency, it soon expanded 

 its program to encompass farmer education programs on a 

 full range of soil and water conservation practices; 

 local organizations were created to sponsor and request 

 federal technical assistance. In this way, 

 recommendations were transformed into actual farm 

 practices. SCS is now extending its operations to 

 developing countries. Through arrangements with AID, 

 for example, it operated a program on soil and water 

 management practices in India, where clear-cut desires 

 were expressed by the cooperating country. 



USDA, the state agricultural systems, and the 

 federal-state cooperative extension services all have 

 research capability and field practice in combining 

 production factors into effective farm operation 



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