Abstract
Responding to demands for transformed farming practices requires new forms of knowledge. Given their scale and complexity, agricultural problems can no longer be solved by linear transfers in which technology developed by specialists passes to farmers by way of extension intermediaries. Recent research on alternative approaches has focused on the innovation systems formed by interactions between heterogeneous actors. Rather than linear transfer, systems theory highlights network facilitation as a specialized function. This paper contributes to our understanding of such facilitation by investigating the networks in which farmers discuss science. We report findings based on the study of a pastoral farming experiment collaboratively undertaken by a group of 17 farmers and five scientists. Analysis of prior contact and alter sharing between the group’s members indicates strongly tied and decentralized networks. Farmer knowledge exchanges about the experiment have been investigated using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Network surveys identified who the farmers contacted for knowledge before the study began and who they had talked to about the experiment by 18 months later. Open-ended interviews collected farmer statements about their most valuable contacts and these statements have been thematically analysed. The network analysis shows that farmers talked about the experiment with 192 people, most of whom were fellow farmers. Farmers with densely tied and occupationally homogeneous contacts grew their networks more than did farmers with contacts that are loosely tied and diverse. Thematic analysis reveals three general principles: farmers value knowledge delivered by persons rather than roles, privilege farming experience, and develop knowledge with empiricist rather than rationalist techniques. Taken together, these findings suggest that farmers deliberate about science in intensive and durable networks that have significant implications for theorizing agricultural innovation. The paper thus concludes by considering the findings’ significance for current efforts to rethink agricultural extension.
Highlights
IntroductionFarmers are routinely called upon to begin practising new forms of knowledge
The demand for agricultural transformation is both urgent and worldwide [1,2]
Network Analysis Results We begin by considering the network of prior acquaintances that existed between the farmers and scientists before the launch of the experiment in 2011
Summary
Farmers are routinely called upon to begin practising new forms of knowledge. The prevailing approach to agricultural learning identifies this new knowledge as something that farmers do not possess and that must somehow be transferred to them. Knowledge is typically equated with objective content and its movement reduced to the one-way transfer of technology. Research problems are set and resolved by scientists who develop technologies in laboratories and research stations; these technologies are passed on to extension agents for transfer to farmers. Whatever its successes may have been in the past, it is generally agreed that the technology transfer model is poorly equipped to deal with the complexity and riskiness of the problems faced by farmers [3]
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