Contacts
For more information about
the CV and its activities contact:
Russell Haines, RIRDC, phone
02 6271 4033, email roslyn.prinsley@rirdc.gov.au
John McKenzie, John McKenzie
and Associates, phone 0402 018 318, email mckenzj@ix.net.au
Website
For information about the
Cooperative Venture and projects go to website www.rirdc.gov.au and click
on the Cooperative Venture page.
Privacy
Notice
This e-mail may contain
personal information as defined in the Privacy Act 1988, or confidential
information. Please do not disclose personal information in this e-mail,
other than that of the sender, to another party without the consent of
the sender. If you are not the intended recipient, or believe that you
have received this e-mail in error, please do not print, copy, retransmit,
disseminate, or otherwise use the information. Also, please notify the
sender that you have received this e-mail in error, and delete the copy
you received.
Thank you.
This newsletter is compiled
by Anne Currey, Naturally Resourceful Pty Ltd.
© Copyright Cooperative
Venture for Capacity Building and Innovation in Rural Industries.
What
capacity building isn’t
In the last edition of the
newsletter we described some of the key elements of capacity building,
taken from Growing the Capital of Rural Australia – the Task of Capacity
Building, a report completed for the Cooperative Venture by Rural Enablers.
Now for some of the things that capacity building isn’t:
-
It isn’t education and training
or technology transfer although they are tools that can be used to develop
capacity.
-
It isn’t about experts imparting
knowledge to others, rather capacity building is based on the concept of
everyone learning together (co-learning), and this can be with input from
people who have special expertise.
-
It isn’t a process where an
organisation external to the process can determine the final outcome.
Bunker
briefings
The Bunker Briefings is
a communication venture aimed to make research findings accessible to policy
makers. Topics and dates are:
-
Institutional arrangements in
NRM (24 March 2004)
-
Voluntary and regulatory approaches
in NRM (28 April 2004)
-
Institutional arrangements in
NRM and beyond (12 May 2004)
-
Caring for Country: Including
Indigenous knowledge (26 May 2004)
Venue is the Bunker Theatre,
Department of the Environment and Heritage, John Gorton Building, King
Edward Terrace, Parkes, between 12.30 and 2.00 pm.
For information go to website
www.lwa.gov.au/
downloads/information/SIRP_seminar_ timetable.pdf or contact Jenny
Tomkins, phone (02) 6274 2720, email: jenny.tomkins@ea.gov.au
Bunker Briefings are a collaboration
between the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Department
of the Environment and Heritage and Land & Water Australia.
Food
for thought
In a study conducted recently
of 700 Victorian students, only seven nominated agriculture as a prospective
career. Perhaps not a surprising result but it does make you wonder about
the shape of agriculture in the future, especially when you couple this
with the prediction that up to half Australia’s present farmers will leave
agriculture in the next 30 years. What are the implications for capacity
building if this trend is realised?
Steering
committee membership
The Cooperative Venture
is managed by a steering committee comprising representatives from the
partners.
The committee is as follows:
-
Simon Hearn, Rural Industries
Research and Development Corporation (Chairman)
-
Russel Haines, Rural Industries
Research and Development Corporation
-
Steve Coats, Dairy Research
and Development Corporation
-
Vic Dobos, Grains Research and
Development Corporation
-
Tony Clancy, Grape and Wine
Research and Development Corporation
-
Neale Price, Meat & Livestock
Australia
-
Craig Bradley, Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry Australia
-
Alice Roughley, Land & Water
Australia
-
Alison Reid, Murray-Darling
Basin Commission
-
Tracy Henderson, Sugar Research
and Development Corporation
-
John McKenzie, John McKenzie
and Associates (Program Manager and Executive Officer)
|
 |
In
this issue:
CAPACITY
BUILDING FROM THE GROUND UP
By being clear about its
aims, building the capacity of its banana grower suppliers, applying sound
marketing techniques and developing an environmental protocol for growing
the product, Pacific Coast Produce has built a successful business that
they believe is economically and ecologically sustainable.
According to Dianne Sciacca,
Managing Director of Pacific Coast Produce, which markets Pacific Coast
Eco Bananas, building the capacity of the growers involved so that they
could grow a product according to an “eco protocol” has been integral to
the success of the venture, which was established in 1998.
The eco protocol, which encompasses
the whole banana growing system, took 4 years to develop and establish.
Included in the protocol are:
-
types of and limits to fertilisers
that can be used
-
nil use of pesticides, nematicides
and miticides applied to the soil
-
types of and limits to use of
herbicide and fungicide
-
how to establish an eco system
in the plantation that attracts a wide range of insect species,
-
fortnightly monitoring of insects
as an indicator of protocol compliance
-
how to manage water use and
soil erosion.
The company has established
a grower group and currently has four farmers that grow under the eco protocol.
These farms are audited on-site each year against Management System (ISO14001),
as well as being internally audited every 6 months against the eco protocol.
Lessons learned. While the
growers are committed to environmental stewardship, Dianne believes that
more importance should have been placed on good business management skills.
“A good business manager is more likely to have skills of vision, budgeting,
preparedness to always find a better way to do things and would therefore
be prepared to make environmental changes,” she explained.
Based on her experience with
Pacific Eco Bananas, Dianne’s recipe for building capacity amongst farmers
so that they are able to embrace change and innovation is a mixture of:
-
Holding up success stories that
will advocate change
-
Assisting growers with new ideas
(many great innovations and achievements started purely with a thought
or idea, give growers the confidence to explore and grow from any mistakes)
-
Developing goal setting techniques
(you must know where you want to be, before you can work out what changes,
how those changes have to be made) Teaching them how to think differently
-
Introducing training programs
that meet the needs of primary producers “at ground level”
-
Providing the training, knowledge,
skills and ideas before they are needed i.e. being proactive.
-
Pacific Coast produce is based
at Innisfail in north Queensland.
PROJECT
UPDATE
A recently completed report
for the Cooperative Venture is Mapping of rural industries service providers,
which was done by Kate Roberts, Mark Paine, Ruth Nettle and Elvin Ho.
The report was commissioned
to address what was seen as a lack of research into the background, qualifications,
location and professional development needs of service providers in Australia.
Terms of reference were to:
-
report on the size and composition
of service providers (people providing information, extension, education
and training services) to land managers
-
do a needs analysis in terms
of professional development for service providers
-
recommend appropriate activities
in which the CV or its members might invest to meet the needs of service
providers.
The study consisted of three
components: a review of the literature; interviews; and an online survey.
A key finding was that service
providers identified the main barriers to their professional development
as being the organisational and external environment.
While most people say that
they high level of job satisfaction, and broadly they believe they have
enough skills to carry out the tasks required, there is much frustration
at the constancy of organisational change and a lack of leadership in managing
that change. Specifically, respondents said that the high level of project
work and the resultant loss of staff continuity and expertise is a particular
burden when trying to achieve change.
In short, from the providers’
standpoint it is not so much the nature of the job or their skills that
are as crucial as the external factors relating to security and support.
It would be interesting to
see how many of our readers agree with this finding.
The report made a number
of recommendations to do with communicating with service providers; taking
steps to improve the gender balance (service provision is a male dominated
area) as well as cultural diversity; counteracting the effects of short
term contracts; the potential of accreditation; and skills and training
needs.
For more information you
can contact Kate Roberts, phone 03 9670 0745 email kroberts@robertsevaluation.com.au
OUT
THERE
There’s a lot of capacity
building research and activity going on out there, both by the CV’s partners
and other organisations and individuals. Here’s a sample.
Wool industry scholarships
The long-term prospects
of the Australian wool industry are now looking even brighter following
the recent launch of Australian Wool Innovation Limited’s (AWI) Scholarship
and Studentship Program. The program will support students, researchers
and woolgrowers in their efforts to develop skills relevant to the future
of the wool industry, both on-farm and along the wool industry pipeline.
The program is an integral
part of AWI’s strategy to build an innovative future for the Australian
wool industry. AWI’s investment will support award recipients across all
education sectors. The program will encourage projects from a wide range
of disciplines including animal health, genetics, and textile and fibre
processing.
Murray-Darling leadership
program
The names of 16 people chosen
to take part in the 2004 Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) Leadership Program
were announced in March by the Agriculture Minister, Warren Truss. The
aim of the program is to boost the leadership skills of people with a passionate
interest in the communities, industries and environment of Australia’s
largest food bowl.
Participants will spend 20
days over the next six months undergoing intensive training, which will
include a 1-week, outdoor, experimental learning activity; two 6-day sessions
focusing on a range of Basin-specific issues and personal development;
and 5 days completing the between-session activities.
Some of the areas of personal
development to be covered include leadership, values, ethics, change management,
networking, strategic thinking, communication, negotiation and teamwork.
Broader topics will include the MDB Agreement and Integrated Catchment
Management policy; the Basin’s biophysical, social, economic and cultural
nature, and the human dimension of natural resource management.
The 16 people taking part
in the 2004 MDB Leadership Program include company managers, educators
and irrigators, as well as financiers, researchers, and government and
industry professionals. The participants have been selected on the basis
of their potential to further develop their leadership skills and effectiveness
in their own communities.
For information go to www.affa.gov.au/ministers/truss/releases/04/04042wt.html
Capacity building – Pommy
style
The British Home Office
has published Building Civil Renewal (PDF), which looks at strategies whereby
the government can better support community groups and community capacity
building. Check out their ideas and recommendations at website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs2/ccbrconsult.pdf. |
