Abstract
In farming, the outcome of critical decisions to enhance productivity and profitability and so ensure the viability of farming enterprises is often influenced by seasonal conditions and weather events over the growing season. This paper reports on a project that uses cutting-edge advances in digital technologies and their application in learning environments to develop and evaluate a web-based virtual ‘discussion-support’ system for improved climate risk management in Australian sugar farming systems. Customized scripted video clips (machinima) are created in the Second Life virtual world environment. The videos use contextualized settings and lifelike avatar actors to model conversations about climate risk and key farm operational decisions relevant to the real-world lives and practices of sugarcane farmers. The tools generate new cognitive schema for farmers to access and provide stimuli for discussions around how to incorporate an understanding of climate risk into operational decision-making. They also have potential to provide cost-effective agricultural extension which simulates real world face-to-face extension services but is accessible anytime anywhere.
Highlights
Digital technologies serve a vital role in the costeffective delivery and communication of agricultural information
In regions where increasing climatic variability poses significant risk to farm profitability and viability, a good understanding of climate information is important to on-farm decision making
Seasonal conditions and weather events over the growing season can have a significant impact on crop production
Summary
Digital technologies serve a vital role in the costeffective delivery and communication (extension) of agricultural information. In a world facing exponential population growth, increasingly uncertain climatic conditions, and looming food, water, and environmental insecurity, there is significant imperative for the ongoing development of agricultural extension approaches [1]. These need to capture leading edge advances in climate science, whilst using the latest understandings from research into education and learning, in order to provide effective support for on-farm decision-making and risk management. Knowledge about how to use relevant climate information in risk-based operational decisionmaking is critical when making farm-level decisions (e.g. about cropping patterns, investment in fertilizers and pesticides, plant population densities, irrigation scheduling, and the timing of planting and harvesting activities)
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