The mission of the Agricultural Production Research Unit (APSRU) re model-based decision support included the expectation that this would result in Decision Support System software. This was in spite of the notorious historical ‘problem of implementation’ in situations of practice. Over the approximately 20 years between 1991 and 2011 the CSIRO team in APSRU addressed this problem on two fronts. One was analysis of the history and philosophy of ’models for management’ in order to learn the pitfalls of such “designed” solutions that were so integral to the traditional product  The second approach was an attempt to engage farmers and their advisers in action research in which they learned to value analysis using models specified for local soil characteristics and states and local climatic records. This was used in an otherwise ‘soft’, participatory, approach to evaluation of risk, i.e. Farmers’, Advisers’, Researchers’ Monitoring, Simulation, Communication, And Performance Evaluation (FARMSCAPE). Published papers are organised in this section as eBooks on these two themes.

I.  Analysis Of Decision Support concepts and history

II. FARMSCAPE As New Paradigm Decision Support