Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
complexity, but these are all additional considerations that determine the
choice of the “best” rootstock. Although advisors are not given to mapping
out all these factors, they constitute the larger ecology, are implicit in
growers' decisions, and are issues that advisors need to confront when
making a place for fi eld science.
Without an appreciation for the practices already in place, it can be hard
to understand why growers might not accept a seemingly superior way
of farming. The advisors I worked with in Monterey County often com-
mented on this link. In an interview with a soil and irrigation advisor, we
talked about his efforts to reduce fertilizer use among local growers:
Soil/Water:
Basically what we're looking at is going out to one of [the
growers'] own fi elds and reducing the amount of fertilizer applied...in
that fi eld. Now, [if] they come back at harvest and there's no difference—
you get the same yield, looks the same, storage life is the same—everything
is the same, but you put half the fertilizer. They see that with their own
eyes . . . that's valuable.
They saw it on
their
ranch, and that's the biggest barrier that you'll see:
“Oh, that works on his ranch, but it won't work on my ranch.” That's the
story you always get. Because it is true—every ranch is different. Soil types
are different. You know, the . . . irrigation system is different. . . . It would
be nice if everybody had the same kind of soil and the same water and the
same irrigation system. Then you could say, “Look, this works here.” But
you can't. It's not that easy.
Here, the place and the practices are inseparable—soil, water, irrigation
method—and growers are unlikely to take much stock in advice that does
not account for the interconnections between these factors.
3
Thus, fi eld
trials in growers' own fi elds are used to display the superiority of a
new technique or technology in a setting that accounts for all the other
practices that growers are already using. By appropriating both the sup-
posed objectivity of science and the place-bound aura of farming a specifi c
piece of land, advisors use these trials to build consensus around their
research.
Typically, the form of fi eld trials is fairly standardized. At the start, the
farm advisor has an idea that he or she would like to test and demon-
strate to growers. Then the advisor asks a grower for help, in the form
