principal product is technology. The primary clients are
farmers. Since FSR/E concerns technology generation,
evaluation, and delivery, there are more agrobiological
than socioeconomic scientists involved, and methodology
emphasizes on-farm biological research as an integrated
and critical portion of a sequence of activities.
 In that context, this book addresses an important
problem in agricultural technology innovation, namely that
of technology development methodology. The problem is not
new; it had been recognized explicitly before the rise in
popularity of so-called farming systems research.
 Traditionally, agricultural personnel have seldom
made the important distinction between science and
technology and between research and development.
Counterparts in industry, with their well-known R and D
designation, have long recognized the distinction. It is
time that agricultural personnel did, and this book takes
a step in that direction.
 Technology is a synthesis, and technology development
is synthesizing. Technology combines knowledge and other
pieces of information into "something that works."
Technology can be embodied in a machine, in a chemical
product, in a seed, or in a cultural practice. Technology
can be biological (seed), mechanical (machine), chemical
(fertilizer), economic (policy), or intellectual
(practice). A technology, to be useful, must serve
without control over the other variables, and the wider
the range of environments in which it can serve, the more
valuable it is.
 Agricultural technology is used in production
systems. Thus, it must be tested in production systems,
it must be adapted to production systems, and it must be
integrated into these systems. An agricultural experiment
station is not a production system. This simple truism
has given rise to such terms as "farming systems research"
and "on-farm research."
 In the training of agricultural personnel, research
methodology has always heavily emphasized science and a
degree of control possible only in the laboratory or on
the experiment station. The value of this activity and of
science is not being challenged in this book. Most
breakthroughs in agriculture have come from science, and
the term "science-based" agriculture is an accurate one.