Increased use of prime agricultural land for cropping and non-agricultural uses in many tropical countries implies that crop residues become more important as a source of feed for livestock. Traditionally, much research on crop residue feeding was done by focusing on laboratory measurements of feed quality but neglect of farmers' perceptions led to disappointing results in the transfer of straw feeding technologies based upon laboratory results. Farming Systems Research (FSR) provides methodologies and concepts that bridge the gap between formal commodity research (including crop residues and by-products) and field application. This paper reports the experiences of a project in India that changed the emphasis from a commodity research approach on improved crop residue feeding to a system approach by using three types of FSR. The paper first reviews the achievements of on-station research on feeding systems for crop residues in terms of treatments (biological, chemical, physical) and in terms of breeding and managing cereal crops for more and better straw. Next, it discusses definitions and problems of FSR as encountered in the project's reorientation of livestock research and development programmes. Finally it summarizes the overall results of the three FSR approaches used in the project.