Farming systems research and extension (FSRE), as used by the global Association for Farming Systems Research-Extension, applies to a family of methodologies used to generate, evaluate and disseminate agricultural technologies in association with farmer participation. FSRE shares many attributes with Diagnosis and Design as practiced in agroforestry. The history of FSRE is traced from 1965 to the present, showing the formalization of the methodology and its critical use in sustainable agricultural technology development. In on-farm research, a primary basis for FSRE, research and extension merge in practice. The definition of recommendation domains (a fundamental concept of FSRE) is based on analysis and interpretation of multi-environmental research results as evaluated by varied criteria.
In this paper, we present the results of three research projects to demonstrate the nature of farmer criteria for evaluation. Modified Stability Analysis (MSA) is used to demonstrate the relationship of on-farm research to specific extension messages. Design of on-farm research to make it amenable to analysis by MSA is discussed.