The operational reality behind the rhetoric of integrated natural resource management poses significant challenges for resource managers, resource use planners and researchers. A variety of frameworks for integrated resource planning and use have been espoused. These tend to reflect the bias of the discipline or stakeholder group fostering the approach and may therefore be unpalatable to, and ignored by, other groups. In this paper, we are concerned with improving the integration of research outcomes into decision making. Rather than propose a framework, we take a pragmatic view of the roles of managers, planners and scientists. In doing so, we draw principally on practical experience derived from an initiative in a rural catchment in tropical Australia. On this basis, we propose a particular and emerging role in designing approaches to adaptive decision support that provide opportunities for integrating research outcomes into decision making.

Many interventions generated by research with the aim of improving the nutritional status of livestock in developing countries have failed to realize their apparent potential when implemented on farms. It is now widely accepted that this is because farmers try to meet a wide range of objectives in feeding their animals. Their decision making can be supported by a sophisticated, indigenous knowledge. When researcher-developed technologies fail to account for this, they may be deemed unacceptable by the farmer. This paper explores one example of an indigenous knowledge system that relates to the quality of tree fodder used by farmers in Nepal. Our results suggest that the knowledge of tree fodder quality possessed by the farmers is quite consistent with the level of information that may be generated from the laboratory analyses that are commonly used by nutritional researchers for the same purpose. Of the two distinct indigenous knowledge systems from Nepal used, one (obanopan) appeared to relate to digestibility of tree fodder (as predicted by an in vitro test) and the other (posilopan) that was perceived as an indicator of general nutritional quality may relate to the ability of a tree fodder to promote the supply of protein at the duodenum. However, the relationship between obanopan and in vitro digestibility indicated that Nepalese farmers, in preferring to use obano fodder, also preferred less digestible fodder due to its ability to fill animals in times of feed shortage. This observation – and the fact that recommendations derived from a panel of nutritionists viewing a set of laboratory indicators describing the tree fodder studied did not appear to account, in any way, for the posilopan criterion, judged important by farmers – highlight the paramount importance of interpreting nutritional information against farmers objectives for a given set of circumstances. An initial analysis of complementarity between the information provided by farmers' perceptions of fodder quality and those generated in a laboratory would appear encouraging for a more integrated approach to assessing fodder quality for the smallholder farmer.

In recent years, the assumption in agricultural R&D that scientific knowledge can and should displace local knowledge and practice has been challenged by an emerging view of local knowledge as a key component of an agricultural system. This paper describes a study of the discriminatory powers of assessment by farmers and by laboratory techniques, of the nutritive value of tree fodder found in the middle hills of Nepal. The two systems of nutritive value assessment for tree fodder are described and evaluated through detailed investigation of eight types of tree fodder (one leguminous and seven non-leguminous), used to supplement crop residue-based diets for cattle during the dry season. Both systems are shown to provide means of discriminating fodder sources in terms of their nutritive value that are comparable in terms of discriminatory power and consistency. This research suggests that laboratory assessment of the feed quality of tropical tree fodder may be used to build on and enhance rather than replace local classification.

In a companion paper (Sinclair and Walker (1998) Agricultural Systems 56, 341–363) a simple and intuitive method for representing qualitative knowledge held by farmers and researchers about complex agroecosystems, such as agroforestry, was presented. This involved generating sets of statements in natural language. The present paper develops the methodology further through the introduction of a formal method of representation. This involves employing a restricted syntax that facilitates the use of automated reasoning procedures and the development of diagrammatic techniques that help users to appreciate linkages amongst inter-related statements. The role of the resulting formal methodology in the process of knowledge acquisition is then discussed in the context of getting multiple informants, such as members of farming communities, to articulate their understanding of the ecology of their farming system and then developing knowledge bases that are an explicit and representative abstraction of what they knew. It is demonstrated that the iterative evaluation of the knowledge people articulate, enabled by the process of formal representation, significantly increases the coherence, consistency and completeness of the knowledge bases that are generated over what can be achieved with less formal methods of representation. It is, therefore, proposed that the formal methods outlined here provide an effective means of helping researchers and development professionals to develop robust, rigorous and defendable qualitative models of the behaviour of complex agroecosystems.

Quantitative and predictive scientific understanding about complex agroecosystems such as traditional agroforestry practices remains sparse. In contrast, farmers, development professionals and others have a qualitative understanding about the systems they have experience of which may be a useful resource in complementing scientific knowledge. Participatory research approaches help to capitalise on this complementarity. However, explicit methods for recording qualitative knowledge from these various sources are required for the basis of this complementarity to be rigorously investigated. This paper reports on the development of a methodology to achieve this, designed specifically with reference to indigenous ecological knowledge about agroforestry, but of wider applicability. Principles and requirements for such representation are discussed and an approach based on organising statements written in ‘natural language’ is described.

Tree fodder is a vital dry season feed resource, used to supplement crop residues, on smallholdings in Nepal and other parts of the Himalaya. Farmers have a detailed and effective knowledge of the nutritive value of different types of tree fodder and the factors affecting this (Rusten and Gold, 1991; Thapa et al, in review). However, the implications of this knowledge for planning research to develop fodder resources and feeding strategies or for the effective delivery of research results to farmers are unclear. The study described here assessed the consistency between analytical indicators and farmers' perceptions of the nutritive value of tree fodder. The potential for using information from these two sources, in a complementary manner, to improve the focus of nutritive value assessment on farmers' needs was also examined.

Tree fodder plays a central role in the farming systems of the mid-hills of Nepal. With declining forest resources, farmers are increasingly relying on establishing on-farm tree fodder resources. An inventory of fodder species grown and a detailed investigation of farmers' knowledge of the comparative fodder quality of different species revealed a complex set of criteria for comparing the 90 species cultivated. Fodder quality was determined by: the ability of fodder to satisfy appetite; the effects of fodder on milk and ghee (butter fat content) production including the effects of fodder on milk odour; the ability of fodder to improve animal growth rate (body weight gain); the effects of fodder on animal health; the comparative preference of different livestock for different fodder; and the palatability of fodder. A number of attributes were known to influence fodder quality. These were: leaf texture; leaf maturity; leaf bitterness; fodder toxicity; season; and the management regimes applied to the fodder tree.