Governance

IFSA is governed by an independent Board of Directors that is answerable to the Association membership and the affiliated regional associations and networks.  The Board consist of 11 member, including the President, President-elect, Past President, Secretary-Treasurer, Editor, Networking/Chair and representatives from each of the five global regions.  The President is elected by a majority of the voting members of the association and serves for a term of three years.  The regional representatives are elected or appointed by their regional constituents and serve from symposium to symposium (usually a period of two years).

Journal and News Sheet
 

IFSA publishes the Journal of Farming Systems Research-Extension with at least three issues per year.  The Journal is a peer-reviewed, professional quality publication that is distributed to all individuals and institutional members of the Association.  It presents results of interdisciplinary, on-farm research-extension work completed in the field, as well as more general discussion on methodology and other items of interest to farming systems field practitioners and trainers, other agricultural research and extension professionals, administrators, and policy-makers.  The Journal is truly multinational and multidisciplinary.  In the five issues published since 1990, over 25 countries have published articles covering 14 disciplines.  Topics have included indigenous technologies, alley cropping, intercropping, watershed management, sustainability, farmer participation, technology transfer, gender analysis, consumption-production linkages, research-extension linkages, and impact assessment.  Methodology papers have dealt with such techniques as rapid rural appraisal, zoning surveys, evaluation approaches, on farm research methods, and participatory methods.

The News Sheet is published at least twice a year and serves as a mechanism for disseminating time-sensitive information and announcements concerning regional and global meetings, new publications and important activities related to FSR/E and participatory research and appraisal.  The News Sheet is distributed to all individual members and provided to each regional association and network for reproduction and distribution to its membership.

Archive and Documentation

The Association, in cooperation with Kansas State University, maintains a unique collection of FSR/E papers, publications and project documentation.  This collection, begun in 1980, provides a unique and important historical record of farming systems activities throughout the world.  Materials from this collection are made available upon request to farming systems researchers, practitioners and students and interested government and non-government agencies and organizations.

Funding

IFSA and its services are suported from individual and institutional membership dues, special grants from donor agencies and financial and in-kind suport from regional FSR associations and networks.