Concepts, opportunities and limits in the decision making in pastoral systems

Abstract

The paper briefly reviews the background of, and recent evolution of decision support systems, DSS, with emphasis on their application to grazing systems. The growing complexity of management decisions is noted, since they not only have to consider the economic performance of grazing systems but need to contemplate numerous aspects related to sustainability as well. The long-term consequences of management decisions need also to be considered, and in this context psychological research has shown that man is poorly equipped to anticipate long-term effects resulting from non lineal interactions between system components. It is concluded that in increasingly competitive markets DSS may constitute a useful tool to support better informed decision-making.