News - Future Farm Industries

Understanding Practice Change By Farmers

This website captures outputs from a national symposium held at Copland Theatre, the University of Melbourne Economics and Commerce Building, Melbourne on the 14 November 2008.

Adoption of new practices by farmers and other rural landholders was the focus of the Understanding Practice Change By Farmers symposium. The symposium brought together leading researchers from around Australia to showcase their research and provide insights into the current thinking about what drives practice change, when adoption of new practices is likely or unlikely, and what can be done to influence it. The symposium linked research evidence to practical application.

Target Audience

Anyone working with land managers or rural landholders seeking an overview on the latest research into facilitating farming practice change, particularly:

Agencies involved in agricultural policy and management of land, water and biodiversity
Agricultural researchers and extension agents
Catchment management authorities
Non-government organisations

Lobby or farming groups interested in changing farming practices.

View Symposium Presentations

Speakers

Symposium speakers came from a variety of disciplines (economics, rural sociology and social psychology) and were well experienced in dealing with practical farming issues.

Symposium speakers included:

	Dr Neil Barr (Department of Primary Industries Victoria) Neil is a social psychologist by training with a longstanding research interest in the adoption of farm innovations and the demographic, psychological and social aspects of adoption.
	Andrew Campbell (Triple Helix Consulting Managing Director) Andrew has been at the cutting edge of natural resource management in Australia for 25 years, and was the CEO of Land & Water Australia from 2000-2006. Andrew has expertise in research, extension, policy and managing knowledge for adoption.
	Professor Allan Curtis (Charles Sturt University) Allan researches watershed organisations, the policy and institutional arrangements supporting catchment management, and the evaluation of NRM programs.
	Geoff Kaine (Department of Primary Industries Victoria) Geoff has expertise in adoption of new technologies and practices by primary producers and market based instruments in natural resource policy. Current projects include policy choices for climate change.
	Dr Rick Llewellyn (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems) Rick's research focuses on adoption of various farming practices, the role of farmer-led groups in the research and extension network, and a variety of farming systems issues.
	Dr Graham Marshall (University of New England) Graham's current work focuses on the economics of community-based environmental programs reliant on farmer’s voluntary adoption of conservation practices.
	Professor David Pannell (University of Western Australia) David is a Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics, ARC Federation Fellow, and Director of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy. He researches many aspects of environmental management.
	Roger Wilkinson (Department of Primary Industries Victoria) Roger has worked as a rural sociologist and extension researcher in Australia and New Zealand and is currently senior social researcher in the Victorian Department of Primary Industries.
	Professor Frank Vanclay (University of Tasmania) Frank is a Professor of rural sociology and leader of the Rural Social Research Group in the Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research, a partnership between UTAS and the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water.

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