CONSIDERATIONS ON A DECISION-ORIENTED CROP SCIENCE

Sometimes failures in plant production are due to wrong decisions in handling the production system. Yet, the science of agronomy does not care much about the failures of a single farmer. It is predominantly directed towards investigating and teaching the basic facts along the ways of natural science. But the scientific development of a decision oriented agronomy can improve this situation, both in research and education. Instead of investigating and teaching single cause-effect relationships, an orientation towards decision making will move the plant production system as a whole again into the center of the reflections. To achieve this, all findings of soil science, plant nutrition, phytomedicine and plant breeding have to be melted into a coherent view of plant production. Thus, the complexity of managing plant production receives its appropriate significance. In order to reach this goal, the farmer as the acting person needs more attention. He or his adviser have to be guided towards making decisions consciously. The process of decision making follows certain steps: searching for and evaluating the relevant information; solving the problem and developing alternatives for acting, vizualising the degree of success connected with each action; recognizing restrictions and considering the risk of each action. By following this way the decision maker becomes fully aware of what he is doing. Finally, ways and means are discussed to investigate the basic facts for developing a decision oriented concept of agronomy. Furthermore the consequences for teaching students are considered: a decision oriented science of agronomy opens the way to comprehend the plant production system as an entity.