Decision support for grassland systems in developing countries

Key points 1. Information flows in complex systems are often themselves highly complex, and decision support approaches based on linear input-output processes may have only limited impact. 2. How decisions are made, and how they can be appropriately supported, is often incompletely understood, in part because of inadequate understanding of the objectives and attitudes of all the decision makers involved. 3. Much of the developing world faces daunting problems in the coming 30 years, and appropriate information could play a critical role in dealing with these. 4. System complexity, household variability, and institutional intricacies have to be embraced rather than avoided, and so decision support might best be orientated towards identifying ‘hotspot’ areas of the highly disadvantaged and targeting appropriate activities in pursuit of the Millennium Development Goals. 5. Effective decision support could be served by more coordinated efforts to develop and maintain key baseline databases in developing countries, and by innovative, participatory approaches to the processing, adaptation and use of information.