About Us
"Extension is an Information Age idea with an Industrial-Colonial Age organisational structure and an Agricultural Age mentality" - its about time we modernise it.
Hi, Iʼm Henry Thomas.
I created this website and the video clips on it as part of an SRDC funded PhD research project titled: DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION THROUGH VIDEO MEDIATED SOCIAL NETWORKS: Influencing Sugar Cane Farming Practices Through Evidence-of-Adoption Strategies.
Media interested in stills and photos should [ follow this link ].
In-Brief
I am investigating whether videotaping and presenting what a farmer would expect to see and hear on a bus trip or field day is as effective as being there in person.
I would like to thank [ the many industry stake-holders ] for the finical and in-kind support they have provided to this project.
Overview
The aim of this Website and the Virtual Bus Tour DVDs is to provide an alternative technology transfer strategy for sugar industry research and development to the traditional approaches (like field days, bus trips and workshops) employed by extension agents. My expectation is that this strategy will be lower cost, more time efficient for growers, provide greater equity of access and be just as effective.
Background
The Productivity Commission’s review of RDCs has identified that the low uptake of research outcomes is a significant concern. In the sugar industry, this is exacerbated by a continuing decline of extension capacity in both QDPI (now QPIF/DEEDI) and the BSES. There is also a robust debate as to whether extension services provide enough public benefit to justify continued funding by government 1,2. Given these issues, it seems prudent our industry should explore lower-cost, high-impact alternatives.
Issue Addressed
This project sidesteps the issue of declining extension capacity, and instead is evaluating new technologies and techniques to achieve similar technology transfer results at lower cost and greater convenience to growers.
Expected Benefits
The direct benefits of this project will be for growers. They will gain better access to information about research outcomes that lead to improved farming practices by hearing directly from the growers who have trialed them. This is expected to improve uptake by providing industry participants with credible sources of information to help them evaluate the merits of adopting these changes within the constraints of their own operations. Greater uptake of research outcomes will indirectly lead to the environmental, social and economic benefits inherent in the research outcomes being presented.
Return on Investment
The direct cost benefit stems from the time saving for both the audience and the presenters. For instance, the opportunity cost of an average day-long bus trip in time alone is 30 times greater for each participant per information opportunity than an hour long Virtual Bus Tour DVD.
In addition, there are issues of social justice for the presenters. For example, innovative growers championed by the sugarcane industry are called upon to provide access to their farms for bus trips and field days. As such, they shoulder a disproportionate burden of voluntary responsibility for encouraging best-practice uptake. By comparison, one appearance on a DVD takes an average of 40 minutes.
Finally, there is an issue of equity of access for industry levy payers. DVDs provide universal access to information at a time and place that is most convenient for industry participants.
Why this approach is innovative
It has already been established 3,4 that watching video of other farmers best-practices can increase their adoption. My PhD research is investigating the link between this evidence of adoption and the formation of new beliefs, which according to Ajzen's Theory of Planned Behaviour 5 should lead to an intention to adopt. My research is also exploring the influence of different presentation styles.
Benefits Realisation
In the short term, industry participants will benefit directly from the Virtual Bus Tour DVDs and the roadshow. Both of these were endorsed by Tropical City Group members at this years meeting. They liked the time saving of a DVD, but most importantly, they liked the close-up demonstrations of equipment in operation; something they rarely get to see at field days. They also liked the roadshow concept because it provided a social context to observe and debate the merits of each new technology presented.
In the longer term, providing a lower-cost, high-impact alternative to traditional extension activities has the potential to arrest the consequences that a declining extension capacity is having on technology adoption by our industry.
Anderson, J. R. (2004) Agricultural Extension: Good Intentions and Hard Realities. World Bank Research Observer 19, 41-60.
Marsh, S. P. & Pannell, D. (2000) Agricultural Extension Policy in Australia: the Good, the Bad and
the Misguided. Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics 44, 605-627.Gandhi, R., Veeraraghavan, R., Toyama, K., & Ramprasad, V. (2007) Digital green: Participatory video for agricultural extension, Proceedings of the Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Development 21-30.
Polson, J. G. (1999) Using Video of a Master Farmer to Teach Others. Journal of Extension 37.
Ajzen, I. (1991) The Theory of Planned Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50, 179-211
