In more than 25 years, a simplistic model of farm decision making has been used to support agricultural policy, research and extension without considering socio-economic and environmental sustainability. The basic assumptions of policy development were based on an "average farmer" and the marginal value of money completely ignoring the marginal social value. This research claims the need of a more holistic "model" of decision making at farm level, where i) behaviour diversity is recognised in farmers' populations and ii) the dynamic and evolutionary interrelationships between the farm, the farmer, the family and trusted people as a unit of resource allocation, are considered. The objectives of this work are to: i) improve the understanding of the decision making process at farm level ii) develop decision concepts for research and extension agencies and policy makers and iii) demonstrate that rural people's knowledge plays an important role in development. A selective review of the main approaches and of descriptive models used to analyse decision making, a survey and a case study analysis is undertaken in order to develop: i) a conceptual background for classifying decision making units into different behavioural Types and ii) a general 'model' of the structure of the farm decision making unit's "natural" decision support system actually used by farmers. Multivariate techniques were used to establish and validate the classification. Several implications for policy makers, information generators and data transmitters underlying the study were identified.

The UK horticulture industry is heavily reliant on the development and dissemination of new science to maintain productivity. Research is important to help farmers combat pest and disease, reduce pesticide use and generally increase the profitability of their enterprise while limiting its environmental impact. While it is important to invest in research the knowledge generated has no value unless it reaches and can be used by those who need it. In 2002 the Spedding Report identified issues in mobilising knowledge from publically funded bodies to the grower base of the English horticulture industry. The report stated that there was a disconnect between scientists and growers which was preventing knowledge flowing between them, the report did not however identify or characterise this problem further. The aim of this thesis was to identify whether the problem identified by Spedding still exists; what characterises it and what implications it has for the mobilisation of government funded knowledge from within scientific based organisations to the wider horticultural community. A case study based multi-method, multi-phase data gathering approach was adopted, including non-participant observation and interviews. Cases were chosen using a purposive intensity sampling technique and representative of the general organisational types within both the science based and grower based (salad, brassica and allium) sector of horticulture in England. Thematicanalysis was adopted as the data analysis method and the five steps for qualitative data analysis proposed by Taylor-Powell (2003) served as a useful guide. A literature review was conducted which four types of driver for agricultural extension were identified, and the main actors involved in the extension activities were described.

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