Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
When advisors or scientists speak to farmers about new crop production meth-
ods, the farmers are wary, and their appetite for change and development varies
greatly. With the Internet, they have access to a great amount of knowledge but can
find it difficult to identify what is appropriate and to develop wisdom for its correct
application. The successful application of novel agricultural practices demands a
lot of knowledge, with intensive training and continuous access to information and
advisory services. Many smallholder farmers do not have education or training and
cannot easily get access to information and knowledge.
Solutions for better farming are mostly farmer centered. Developing knowledge and
convincing farmers of the benefits of the use of sustainable practices are not easy. The
older farmers in my community have developed an instinctive way of conserving the
soil over the years. They use rotations with break crops and grass, regular farmyard
manure applications, and periods of sheep grazing to improve soil quality. These tech-
niques contain the wisdom of our ancestors and work well, perhaps explaining why
farmers are unwilling to change quickly to adopt new management techniques. My
organization, SRUC, Scotland's Rural College, has a strong reputation for the provi-
sion of advice based on the research of its scientists. Yet there is still disagreement on
some management actions and insufficient input by advisors on the details of relevant
applied research. If scientists and advisors often do not agree among themselves on the
most appropriate courses of action, how does the farmer know where to turn?
Advice is often provided free to farmers by suppliers of fertilizers, pesticides, or
machinery and thus can be biased. Knowledge transfer can be hampered by a lack
of consistent, unbiased advice. The use of technology without wisdom is considered
by Lal (2009a) to be one of the great blunders of humanity. Yet there are examples
of wise use of technology. In my community in North East Scotland, a contractor
told me that he determined the optimum depth of subsoiling by first crossing the
field once with the subsoiler at full depth. He then feels down the subsoiler legs to
identify the zone with the warmest metal. This corresponds to the average depth of
the compact layer, and he then adjusts the subsoiler to penetrate to just below this
depth. This information appeared after one or two whiskies were consumed, a case
of one spirit enabling the other!
Farmers and advisors need to get together to develop new production methods
from innovative ideas produced by scientists. Agricultural innovation can be seen
as having the three main components of biotechnical processes, farm management,
and advisory services (Le Gal et al. 2011). Yet very few studies attempt to address
these three main components in a single research framework. Le Gal et al. (2011)
propose such an integrated framework for conducting integrated research both at the
farm and advisory levels. In this, the farmer, researcher, and advisor work together
in a triangular relationship.
New agricultural methods need to integrate easily with the old and be developed or
adapted to local circumstances, especially where workers are poor, partially skilled,
or partially educated. This may require a revitalized connection between the elders
and a younger generation (McIntosh 2008b) to carry over wisdom. Development of
wisdom was perceived by Schumacher (1973) as the orientation of science and tech-
nology toward the holistic, the gentle, the nonviolent, the elegant, and the beautiful
and that will lead to indivisible peace.
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