The role of the professions in science-based farming

and land management

Jeremy Phillipson, Amy Proctor and Philip Lowe

A philosophy of knowledge exchange

Knowledge producers

Knowledge users

Knowledge Transfer

Knowledge producers

Knowledge users

A philosophy of knowledge exchange

Knowledge Exchange

• stakeholders engaged throughout as active partners in research

• reciprocal exchange between scientists and stakeholders

• knowledge exchange through people exchange and informal networks

• bringing social consideration to bear on technical research

A philosophy of knowledge exchange

combined socio-technical innovation

The Advisory Professions as Knowledge Intermediaries?

Farmers Weekly 12 July 2011 “Teamwork reaps benefits on beef finishing unit”

The Advisory Professions as Knowledge Intermediaries?

RegulatoryKnowledge

Formal ProfessionalKnowledge

FIELD-BASED PROFESSIONALS

Formal Scientific

Knowledge

LANDMANAGER

The Advisory Professions as Knowledge Intermediaries?

The Advisory Professions as Knowledge Intermediaries?

“I think I have a very important role in converting what the scientists

have done and come up with into a format that my farm clients can use

and understand” (Veterinarian)

“I think the skill of empathy and the skill of being able to explain your technical knowledge in ways that the farmer can understand is the

most important thing really. Ecology can get very, very technical and

very science, if you like, so it's being able to translate that into sort of

sensible, understandable information really for the farmer”

(Ecologist)

“You always make a point of reading certain technical journals to see what the latest things are

and you try and remember what’s happened. You will pick up some good ideas and you will try and implement them …. You don’t

realise you’re necessarily using these things, but it’s part of your personal knowledge bank and,

therefore, it comes into play. You think, ‘Oh yeah, well, that’s

something that’s worth applying” (Land agent)

ExperientialKnowledge

ExperimentalKnowledge

RegulatoryKnowledge

Formal ProfessionalKnowledge

FIELD-BASED PROFESSIONALS

Formal Scientific

Knowledge

LANDMANAGER

The Advisory Professions as Knowledge Producers?

Research and agriculture = innovative modern food production

The Advisory Professions as Agents for Socio-Technical Innovation?

Getting a glimpse of future precision farming techFarmers Weekly 05 November 2009

• How are public and private research agendas and strategies responding to the needs of the agriculture and land advisory professions?

• What knowledge exchange approaches and mechanisms have been adopted and how could they be improved?

Landbridge and Today’s Workshop