By Megan Dunn, soils and natural resources assistant at Innovation for Agriculture
A systems thinking approach can be applied to farm management to solve problems and make informed decisions. This article explores what systems thinking is, the benefits it can unlock and how it can be applied in a farming context.
What is systems thinking?
Systems thinking is a broad title given to approaches which look at the various connections, interrelations, and wider, long term impacts of actions, events or processes. It goes beyond asking how to get from A to B, instead considering how should we get from A to B and what could the wider effects of this be?
Feedback loops are a significant part of systems thinking. These are process that re-enforce themselves, for example: A plant is unhealthy – chemical plant protection products and fertilisers are used to solve this – this reduces the health of the soil – the next crop is therefore less healthy – therefore more chemical products are used… and so on. Feedback loops are important, as they can work to self-sustain positive actions, or rapidly increase the negative effects of a problem. Through systems thinking it becomes easier to see where these loops lie, and therefore where they can be used to an advantage or prevented from occurring.
In modern agriculture, there has become less of a need to implement systems thinking, as often the solution to a problem can be found in a bottle or from new technology. The wider effects of these are often not considered, and perhaps more importantly, it can feel like there is increasingly less space to think about the systematic impacts of these actions as quotas, standards and deadlines need to be met.
While systems thinking doesn’t say technology or chemical products should not be used – the benefit of systems thinking is that almost nothing is ruled out – it encourages us to take a step back. Before we jump to the first, or most convenient solution we think of, systems thinking allows us to consider what the long term and wider consequences of our actions are, and how these weigh against any short term gains.
The benefits of systems thinking
Systems thinking provides a more holistic approach to decision making, which enables a wider view point to assess the short and long term outputs, impacts and consequences. Because of this, often the resulting action is truly appropriate for the context in which the decision was made, and therefore any outcomes are more successful and resilient in the long term, because unintended consequences haven’t been ignored.
We face many of the environmental challenges we do, arguably, because of a lack of strong systems analysis in the beginning, alongside other factors such as funding, policy and competing interests. For example, it may be a quick fix to discharge sewage into rivers, however the time, costs and materials required to reverse this damage may be greater than if a more systemically considerate solution was designed in the first place.
Although making decisions using systems thinking tools can take longer initially, time is often saved in the long run because the right feedback loops are initiated from the start of a process, and so there is no need for remediation actions.
There is also scope to think about a multitude of desired and unwanted outcomes when we use systems thinking. For example, when decision making on farm, often there will be a priority outcome driving the decision making – such as maintaining a profitable business, improving yield or minimising harm to the environment. These are important, and therefore will maintain a significant place when thinking of the farm as a system, however, there are many other significant factors, such as family commitments, personal interests, maintaining enjoyment from tasks or connecting with others which can become neglected. Systems thinking incorporates all of this, by making considerations such as making an important but mundane task more enjoyable to increase the chance of it being completed on time.
Systems thinking in an agricultural context
Fundamentally, agriculture sits within a range of systems – ecosystems, weather systems, financial and political systems (to name a few) - and therefore to create a resilient farm business, the farms' role within these systems, as well as the farms own systems, need to be carefully considered. With a range of seemingly quick solutions to problems, it can be difficult to justify taking the time to step back and think more holistically about how a problem can be overcome, however, when done well, using systems thinking tools for decision making can result in longer lasting, more resilient and effective solutions.
Are you interested in applying systems thinking to your farm management system? Use the tools and exercises shared in this blog to start bringing the farm system as a whole into decision making
