Reductionist science in agriculture and horticulture

Abstract

Science ensures that explanations and predictions about the biological and physical worlds are verifiable, while also providing an approach that enables improved understanding to develop and be permanently recorded. There are several terms in common usage that describe the approaches used in scientific research, but at the extremes, words such as ‘reductionism’ and ‘holism’ are now frequently encountered. While singular reductionism can result in key relationships and linkages being missed, holism appears to ignore the need to identify how confounding factors can affect the quality of understanding derived from complex systems. Here we suggest that science is not a simple dichotomy of reductionism versus holism. Instead, it comprises a more fluid and complex mission. However, within multidisciplinary agricultural and horticultural science one regularly finds words like ‘systems’, ‘integration’, and ‘unifying’. Reductionist science is certainly part of the pursuit of holistic solutions to problems, not least in transdisciplinary research.