Theme 33: Technology Transfer and Education
Description
Stakeholders in grassland farming, including farmers, rural communities, urban consumers, politicians, educators, and service agencies, widely agree that the goal for grassland farming is the triple bottom line: farming systems that are ecologically sustainable, profitable and socially acceptable. This paper considers how extension and training might contribute to that worthy goal by encouraging practitioners to better manage their management environment. The notion of a management environment refers to a holistic consideration of those factors that impact on farmers, farm advisors or educators, that subset of grassland farming ‘practitioners’ within the wider range of stakeholders.
The difficulty faced by these practitioners is how to achieve the triple bottom line in a management environment that is changing rapidly, often through influences that are outside their control. To this end the paper progressively develops the following themes. (1) Change is an inherent part of the management environment in grassland farming and is driven by macro influences that arise from outside the farm and by micro influences that impact on farm management options. (2) Successful practitioners must manage change and the role of training and extension is to facilitate management of change. (3) Managing change requires a suite of knowledge and skills that foster innovation in the management environment, thereby demanding successful managers to be self-reliant and to embrace a life-long process of learning. (4) Information to cope with change and to underpin management decisions will, increasingly, be obtained through the World Wide Web and other modern forms of communication. (5) Active learning methods, ranging from apprenticeships to participatory groups are becoming the preferred means for adopting appropriate technologies or actions for managing change. (6) Curricula in training institutions need to move from the traditional emphasis on technologies and the means of production to courses that emphasize a holistic view of agriculture and the skills for handling the management environment at both the macro and micro levels. The overall thrust of the paper is to propose that the most worthy aim in training and extension is to prepare graduates for a world of change by ensuring they have the basic knowledge, skill, confidence and attitude to embark on a lifetime of learning, adaptation and innovation.
Citation
Rickert, K. G., "Technology Transfer and Education Training and Extension in Grassland Farming" (2022). IGC Proceedings (1993-2023). 12.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/igc/19/33/12
Included in
Technology Transfer and Education Training and Extension in Grassland Farming
Stakeholders in grassland farming, including farmers, rural communities, urban consumers, politicians, educators, and service agencies, widely agree that the goal for grassland farming is the triple bottom line: farming systems that are ecologically sustainable, profitable and socially acceptable. This paper considers how extension and training might contribute to that worthy goal by encouraging practitioners to better manage their management environment. The notion of a management environment refers to a holistic consideration of those factors that impact on farmers, farm advisors or educators, that subset of grassland farming ‘practitioners’ within the wider range of stakeholders.
The difficulty faced by these practitioners is how to achieve the triple bottom line in a management environment that is changing rapidly, often through influences that are outside their control. To this end the paper progressively develops the following themes. (1) Change is an inherent part of the management environment in grassland farming and is driven by macro influences that arise from outside the farm and by micro influences that impact on farm management options. (2) Successful practitioners must manage change and the role of training and extension is to facilitate management of change. (3) Managing change requires a suite of knowledge and skills that foster innovation in the management environment, thereby demanding successful managers to be self-reliant and to embrace a life-long process of learning. (4) Information to cope with change and to underpin management decisions will, increasingly, be obtained through the World Wide Web and other modern forms of communication. (5) Active learning methods, ranging from apprenticeships to participatory groups are becoming the preferred means for adopting appropriate technologies or actions for managing change. (6) Curricula in training institutions need to move from the traditional emphasis on technologies and the means of production to courses that emphasize a holistic view of agriculture and the skills for handling the management environment at both the macro and micro levels. The overall thrust of the paper is to propose that the most worthy aim in training and extension is to prepare graduates for a world of change by ensuring they have the basic knowledge, skill, confidence and attitude to embark on a lifetime of learning, adaptation and innovation.
