How the Internet enables farmers to comprehend climate

Climate information access by farmers is insufficient because their access hasn't been optimized. That is the result of a collaborative study by Australian researchers on climate change and its effects on farmers with small fields in Indonesia.

"Compared to Australia's farmers, the effects of climate change are similar, mainly draughts. However there is a significant difference, which is that Australian farmers can access weather forecast information through the internet," said Catherine Tulloh, a climate change researcher from Australia Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE).

Read the full article.

Autralian Research Portal on Climate Change and Agriculture unveiled

A New on-line portal that brings together research on climate and agriculture by more than 40 Commonwealth and State Government organisations has been launched.

Read full article.

Visit: www.aanro.net

Open access to Australian research outputs through relaunched AANRO

The redeveloped AANRO database is launched in Canberra Australia on 9 September.

Designed as a national single entry point to agriculture and natural resource management research information, Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online (AANRO) makes the outputs of publicly funded research readily available and sets a new standard in open access for agriculture and natural resource management.

It has been developed as a collaborative effort between the 14 rural research and development corporations, the Primary Industries Standing Committee and Natural Resource Management Standing Committee members. This involves more than 36 partner organisations. There has also been considerable investment by the Climate Change Research Strategy for Primary Industries (CCRSPI) partners.

AANRO includes three major databases which are linked – a research in progress database, a researcher profile database (to enable person to person contact), and a final research report database.

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Source: Pam Cunningham, AANRO Manager, Land & Water Australia, www.lwa.gov.au

More postings on: Aginfo Australia; open access

FarmGAS: Software gratuito para optimizar explotaciones ganaderas y agrícolas en Australia

Una novedosa aplicación informática (FarmGAS) abrirá nuevas posibilidades en la agricultura y la ganadería. La aplicación desarrollada por el Instituto Agrícola de Australia con fondos destinados a la lucha contra el cambio climático.

La función de FarmGAS – que será gratuito - es lograr que las granjas y explotaciones tanto ganaderas como agrícolas sean más eficientes y, al tiempo, más respetuosas con el medio ambiente. La aplicación mide las emisiones de carbono generadas por cada explotación y propone la manera de reducirlas a través de su gestión una vez se han introducido los datos correspondientes a sus campos o ganado. Así pues logra maximizar la eficiencia de los piensos, la calidad de la carne, mide la conductividad eléctrica del suelo para predecir el riesgo de salinidad en los pastos y, atención a este dato, logra reducir las emisiones de gases de invernadero a la mitad en un año.

Connecting research, extension and agribusiness in Australia

This RIRDC study in Australia demonstrates that agribusiness advisers make up a significant information conduit to growers, yet agribusiness has not yet been used strategically by the R&D community.

It concludes that the use of the FarmPlus model of an interactive Information Repository is a way to commence RDC and agribusiness engagement using a tangible product.

More on FarmPlus

More postings on Aginfo Australia

Knowledge management principles for natural resources management

Last month, we shared some data management principles for natural resources management. This month, we look at some KM principles from the Regional Knowledge Resource Kit - a wiki resource for managing information and knowledge for natural resource management in Australia. Also produced by Land & Water Australia, the principles they suggest are:

• Share what you know and help others learn.
  
• Has this been done before? Don’t reinvent the wheel!
  
• Collaboration.
  
• Synthesis - transfer knowledge concisely rather than overloading your audience.
  
• Learning.
  
• Team work.
  
• Innovation / creativity.
  
• Use networks of expertise.
  
• Promote knowledge champions.
  
• Language - make sure it is appropriate to the audience.
  
• Knowledge is volunteered, never conscripted.
  
• We know more than we can say, and we say more than we can write down.
  
• We only know what we know when we need to know it.
  
• Being well connected. The Paul Revere story provides a good example why.

See the Resource Kit

Sharing and finding knowledge on natural resources management

In recent years, Land & Water Australia - which seems to be disappearing soon - has pioneered a wide range of activities to assist and enhance the management of information and knowledge for natural resources management.

Two key outputs of interest to the wider community:

• The Regional Knowledge Resource Kit, a wiki resource on managing information and knowledge for natural resource management. Especially interesting for materials on knowledge strategies as well as 50+ articles on different knowledge resources and tools from access, through blogs, information lieracy, peer assists to world cafe.
  
  
• The NRM Navigator - this seems to be a focused search 'toolbar' that guides searchers to different resources, events and decision support tools.

Data and information management toolkit

Australia's National Land and Water Resources Audit and ANZLIC Natural Resources Information Management Toolkit is a set of modules to help groups "discover, access, visualise and manage their data and information."

The "contemporary view of sustainable management of natural resources is that it is best achieved by ... involving the development of strong cooperative partnerships between government bodies, the community, on-ground land managers and educational institutions." This implies that each of these groups has to be able to effectively manage data and information.

"The Toolkit has been designed to provide universal principles of best practice for data and information management." It has a particular emphasis on capacity building and spatial data - though the principles apply much wider.

Identifying farm forestry information needs

The farm forestry sector in Australia is diverse and requires information on a wide range of issues. Different groups also like to seek information in a range of different ways. 

This RIRDC study reports on a survey of farm foresters, extension and industry: Who needs information? What do they need: what type of information and what form? How aware are they of existing information? How do they currently obtain information? How do they prefer to receive future information about farm forestry?

The survey found that the key information needs relate to financial, legal and policy aspects; environmental products, services, credits and trading; forestry products and markets; and farming systems including integrating farm forestry for environmental outcomes.

The preferred ways of accessing information about farm forestry were also diverse. Personal advice, along with trials and demonstrations were highly preferred. Written forms of information (web, research reports, newsletters and fact sheets) also rated very highly as preferred means of accessing farm forestry information. Discussion groups were thought to be potentially helpful...

Implications identified by the authors: "To suit the diverse preferences, there is need to make farm forestry information available in a wide range of formats including both written (reports, web, fact sheets) and interactive forms (personal advice, trials and demonstrations, discussion groups and training courses). These need to be specifically tailored to suit the issue and the audience.

Impact of ICTs in rural areas in Australia

A new report from RIRDC in Australia identifies "the impact of ICT applications on people and communities in rural and regional Australia."

The main outcomes of this research "indicate the very important roles of Neighbourhood Houses, Community Centres, Rural Transaction Centres, Social Clubs and Government Agents (QGAP), local councils and Technical and Further Education institutes to facilitate, introduce and support ICT implementation, adoption and provision of e-government and e-learning services and programs in rural and regional Australia.

Rural citizens are increasingly leveraging the initiatives to stay connected, to enhance skills, to interact with government, find job opportunities, communicate with friends and relatives, conveniently and at reduced costs.

The ICT initiatives have created public awareness, empowerment, community development and social inclusion in these communities. The initiatives have enhanced the confidence of the citizens in using the technology and applying it to work, for hobbies, and for further education."

Virtual Agronomy: Internet supports on-farm innovation in Australia

To help overcome barriers of distance and costs, the Internet is being used in Australia to facilitate virtual meeting spaces and online communication, allowing farmers and researchers to discuss issues and share data virtually.

Recent reports from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation describe some of the results.

Virtual Field Day for Improved Farmer Decision Making reports on a project that used web-based technologies to distribute information on cropping trials to farmers. More on this virtual agronomy project (and on a similar project from the UK).

A Virtual Meeting Space to Support Farmers Learning About Natural Resource Management reports on the use of  internet enabled virtual meetings among farmers and researchers.

Using low cost, low-bandwidth Internet conferencing to support farmer group operations and learning reports on the use of Microsoft NetMeeting™ to facilitate access to research and information without leaving homes.

e-Extension down under ...

In Australia, Dean Power and Think eExtension are all about the "use of Web 2.0 and Social Media tools in engagement, knowledge sharing and creation, and community cultivation of Sustainable Agriculture, Natural Resource Management and Environmental Stakeholders." Check out blog postings with the label e-Extension (also on the eco2oh blog ...

There's also a nice paper by John James at a 2007 APEN event - Using e-Extension to better engage with clients and enable change. Reviewing various extension approaches, he identifies likely web 2.0 tools that can be applied, arguing that these tools will particularly increase engagement and collaboration among extension workers and their clients.

Communicating ACIAR research results

The 2007-2008 operational plan of ACIAR includes a short section outlining how its research results will be communicated.

The 'key performance indicators' they list are of interest to professionals in this area:

• "Information on project achievements and impacts is widely available in print and web-based media
• Evidence of continuing demand for and appreciation of ACIAR's scientific and corporate publications
• Targeted stakeholder groups are satisfied that their information needs are being effectively met
• ACIAR’s use of information and communication methods and technologies for disseminating agricultural research information for development is consistent with current best practice."
  

Tags: agricultural information australia research aciar communication

Australia sets up knowledge brokering system on natural resources

Land and Water Australia have set up a Knowledge for Regional Natural Resource Management initiative to build stronger connections between research/information providers and Natural Resource Management (NRM) planners, decision makers, implementors and evaluators.

According to project documents, 'knowledge brokering' is a "dynamic activity that is the human force behind knowledge exchange and adoption. It involves bringing people together, helping to build links, identify needs, and share ideas and information that will allow a problem to be solved or lead to a better way of doing things." The initiative will simplify access to data and information and facilitate information exchange between regional bodies and research/information providers.

One activity is to examine the setting up of an 'Interconnected Knowledge System' for NRM. A 'first stop knowledge shop', this will give information seekers easy access to multiple data and information sources from a variety of sources. It will help people find the information or contact they need when they need it, and help people sort out the most relevant of the potential information sources. It will also allow increased coordination, cooperation and interconnection between agencies.