1 AN APPLICATION OF SOFT SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY TO IMPROVE AGRI-FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN: The Case of Dryland Farming of Lombok Island Indonesia I Gusti L.P. Tanaya 1,2 , Murray McGregor 1 , Maria Fay Rola-Rubzen 1 1 Muresk Institute of Agriculture, Curtin University of Technology, Australia 2 Faculty of Agriculture, University of Mataram, Indonesia Abstract Interest in analysing agri-food supply chains, has grown tremendously in the last decade because of the importance of food in well-being, an increasing globalisation of the food industry and as a result agri-food chains increased in complexity. The complexity also results from the perishable nature of food products, seasonality and the risks inherent in the production systems. In a developing country like Indonesia, these complexities are heightened but a further factor can be added - traditional culture plays an important role in almost every aspect of business activities. Agri-food supply chains are highly organised social systems, which have the objective of efficiently matching consumer demand with product supply. The importance of social factors such as cooperation, trust and relationships suggest that Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) has some potential for exploring improvements to agri-food supply chains. This paper reports on an application of SSM to improve agri-food supply chain performance for dryland farming products from small-scale farmers in Lombok, Indonesia. Some possible future research opportunities are also explored. Keywords: Soft Systems Methodology, Agri-food, Supply Chain, Lombok, Indonesia Introduction Agri-food supply chains, while similar to the supply chains associated with manufactured products, have a specific nature associated with the characteristics of agricultural products. This is that the products are often bulky and fresh therefore requiring special handling, are time and place sensitive and are produced in high-risk environments subject to the vagaries of global biological and climatic processes. Like other supply chains, agri-food supply chains involve input suppliers, producers (farmers) or manufacturers, processors (intermediaries), wholesalers and retailers. They are also similarly fashioned by the characteristics of the product transformation to final consumer good and/or the socio-political environment in which they operate. For instance, the