Summary and Future of Adaptive Management in Agricultural Research and Education.

Adaptive management (AM) is a process to develop solutions to complex biological problems. The process resembles traditional methods to solve problems used by research and extension personnel at land-grant universities, but the process is fundamentally different. The two main ideas in AM as used in agriculture are assessments of management practices by producers, and discussion of the results of the assessments by producers and agricultural service providers. Presentations in this symposium have shown how AM can be used to improve N management by using current recommendations as a starting point. Producers performing the assessments allow evaluation of N management practices across many environments. Many environments are needed because N processes in soils are greatly affected by weather and site-specific factors. Producer implementation of the assessments starts a participatory learning process. Scientists facilitate the process in discussions of the results of the assessments in meetings with small groups of producers and agricultural service providers. Discussion in the meetings enables rigorous examination of the results, which allows the results to be placed in the context of past research and the producers’ resources to implement revised guidelines. Creating a participatory learning environment with the producers as equal participants in discussions of results is a key component of adaptive management. Such discussions are needed because agricultural production occurs in a complex biological and human setting. Use of adaptive management will create more efficient and easily adoptable management practices that should be easier to incorporate into public policy.