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Rural Industries
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Making
the connection - information
technology in farming
systems
Research commissioned by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation to ii-nprove understanding of the information technology needs of rural Australia is at the leading edge of work in this field.
Prior to 1995-96 when RIRDC commissioned the benchmark study by Dr Roger Buckeridge on telecommunications infrastructure issues for rural Australia, little substantive research had been undertaken on the contemporary issues facing regional communities in building electronic communication networks.
Since then, RIRDC has funded over 10 major projects in this area, covering such diverse issues as telecommunications policy, Internet content, personal computer usage and standardising the classification of information in agricultural systems.
Through its Human Capital, Communications and Information Systems Program, RIRDC is seeking to facilitate innovation in the agricultural sector by improving the use of communication and education processes and appropriate information systems.
Current research projects include:
Research priorities are determined as part of RIRDC's research and
development plan and annual operating plan. The plans are based on substantial
analysis of industry needs and extensive consultation with key extension
agencies, other R&D Corporations and stakeholders such as the National
Farmers' Federation.
RIRDC is the only agency with a national and cross-industry program
in communication, education and information systems. The area of information
technology and online communications is an important part of the program.
Details of these and other projects are available elsewhere in this report and further information is available by contacting Dr Roslyn Prinsley on (02) 6272 4033. Several published works are also available from RIRDC - see the back page.
A problem common to people involved in business, including agriculture, is that of information overload. Available information is not utilised to the fullest because it cannot be accessed as simply and efficiently as required. There is also considerable duplication of effort by individuals to store information so that it can be easily retrieved when needed.
People in agricultural industries require more control over their ability to access information as they need it. Electronic information systems are one way to address this. Those farms who want to be part of a competitive, world class industry will require a positive attitude to electronic information systems, high level skills and unimpeded access (ASTEC, 1996). A pilot project by Fannwide, a subsidiary of the National Farmers' Federation is investigating this issue, together with RIRDC, and should demonstrate its potential benefits and disadvantages.
Widespread access to appropriate electronic information systems and
their beneficial use by farmers will not necessarily develop through market
forces. The following are necessary for the successful use of such systems
by the agricultural sector:
RIRDC has recently completed a project on issues concerning the
establishment of an infrastructure for Intemet access, and a content analysis
of existing Australian world wide web sites for Australian farm businesses.
A considerable amount of research and development is still required before the four criteria above are met. How useful is the information currently available on the Intemet in relation to farm management? How useful is it to farmers? What impact does it have on decision-making? How could it be improved to meet user needs? How can appropriate infrastructure be more rapidly established in rural areas9
Some of the projects currently being funded by RIRDC, and outlined in this report, should help us to answer some of these questions.
Dr Roslyn @nsley
Introducing RIRDC's Program Manager
Dr Prinsley has been with RIRDC for five years, having worked previously for the Bureau of Resource Sciences and, before that, for the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.
Currently she is General (Research) at RIRDC, with responsibility for the Agribusiness, Trade and Sustainable Farming Systems portfolio. In addition to the Human Capital, communication and Information Systems Program, Dr Prinsely manages the Agroforestry and Farm Forestry, Cashews and tea Tree Programs.
Dr Prinsley plays and an active role in the rural industries policy sector. She is a member of the Rural Women's Advisory Group to the Secretary of the Department of Primary Industries and Energy, and the national selection panel for the DPIE Farm Forestry Program. She is also engaged in work with international research organisations.
Lia Bryant, working in the School of Social Work and Social Policy, has found that there is little detailed information available on the use of information technologies within farm businesses and their impact on farm management and practice. Yet it has been widely predicted that the uptake of IT by fanners will bring significant benefits.
By collaborating with other researchers and studying the farm population, Ms Bryant is developing a profile of users and non-users of information technology, their needs, as well as case studies of farmers who-have successfully adopted new technologies in their farm management practices.
This approach will help to identify the programs and systems which have been adopted most successfully, and the impact of these on the management of the farm. it will also aid the development of effective strategies to assist farmers to engage with new infortnation technologies, and to understand the problems that fanners have encountered along the way in taking it up.
The project is due for completion in mid 1998.
For further information contact: Lia Bryant, telephone (08) 8302 4363 or email Lia.Bryant@unisa.edu.au.
Despite large amounts of money being spent on software development, promotion and extension programs, it appears the use of the personal computer on-farirn remains limited. The 'rosy picture' of potential farmer use of PCs predicted in the 1980s has not been realised, despite the fact that many farmers now have easy access.
So why and how are fanners using their PC?
A collaborative project in Victoria is examining the views and attitudes of both PC users and non-users to reveal the factors which influence their use (or non-use), their needs and concerns about software, their training requirements and opportunities and their capacity to use other information technologies in the future.
Information gathered from this study will assist training providers, extension staff and software providers to better understand farmers' computer needs and provide the support and resources they require to maximise the benefit of their PC usage for their farm.
For further information contact: Arthur Stubbs, telephone 03 9844 1135
Better access to computers and information technology in the farm sector has opened up the opportunity to improve education, extension and training services using computers.
To improve the quantity, awareness and use of this valuable tool in agriculture, RIRDC has provided support to researchers in NSW who will identify the resources currently available, users" experience with them and where the gaps are in order to stimulate the development of new and better information technology products.
Primesoft Solutions' principal researcher, Anthony Hele, says computer aided learning can be very valuable for education and training.
"It offers advantages in terms of flexibility of delivery, user control, remote access, working at your own pace, immediate feedback on performance and economy of delivery.
'However, agricultural education is poorly serviced when it comes to specific and specialised computer software.
"Users also face a shortage of information o available resources and developers don't have enough information on the market's requirements."
RIRDC says this research will result in more efficient and relevant education and training resources that also better equip users to understand and effectively utilise computer technology in agriculture.
For further information contact: Mr Anthony Hele, telephone 043 76 1173
The Farmwide Online Services Project has connected 1,000 farm families
across rural and remote Australia to online services.
The project is providing invaluable information about fanners' access to and use of online services. From analysis carried out to date, it is clear that access to online services in rural areas is in many cases difficult and inferior in speed and quality of access. While all participants have modems capable of connecting at 28,800 bits per second (bps), 25 per cent can only connect at 9,600bps, a third of their potential speed and two thirds of the participants only achieve connections at below 28,800bps.
Forty of the original registrants for the pilot were unable to connect
satisfactorily, that is, they could not make or maintain a connection. The factors affecting the ability to make a successful connection and achieve reasonable access speeds is affected by the age of their telephone line and exchange, the distance they are from the exchange and the presence of limiting technologies such as digital radio concentrator services (DRCS) in remote areas.
Once the participants are online, they are using their service for an average of 1 0 hours a month compared with 6.3 hours for metropolitan users. The participants are finding email and the World Wide Web to be the most useful services, followed to a far lesser extent by banking, livestock trading and online shopping. The most
commonly accessed sites on the web are those containing weather, commodity pricing and technical, production-type information.
The Farmwide Intemet site (www.farmwide.com.au) includes links to over 700 sites of interest and includes Eureka!, a commodity pricing service updated daily, chat sessions with a trainer and guests each week, discussion groups and subscriber email lists, quick downloads of free software on the web and feedback functions for the participants to publish their thoughts on useful software and web sites of interest.
The trial is expected to continue until December with the final report being published in early 1998.
Rosie Simpson, Project Manager
Rosie has a M.,Sc. From the University of Reading , UK, specialising in project management in developing agricultural sectors and a B.Ag.Ec from the University of New England in Armidale, majoring in international trade and econometrics.
She ahs worked with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the International Trade Policy Section before being appointed as an economist to the International Wool Secretariat in London to assess world wool demand and the effectiveness of JWS promotion.
Rosie has worked with the NFF on the New Horizons Project, outlining NFF's policies into the 21st century, published a number of documents on Industrial Relations and Economic policies for the rural sector, before being appointed to the position of Project Manager for Farmwide.
Rosie's family maintains as cattle property at Noonabarabran, NSW.
Doug Miell, Director, Government Relations and Communications
Doug has an agricultural background, encompassing broadacre cereal production in Western Australia and Queensland, experience in livestock marketing and management and foreign exchange and commodity trading.
From 1988-1992 Doug was the Market Analyst for the Grains Council of Australia, with specific responsibly for grain legumes and oilseeds policy and world grain supply and demand analysis.
Following two years as deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Real Estate Institute of Australia, with responsibility for economics, research, policy development and government relations, Doug spent three years as policy adviser to the Federal Minister for Family Services, the Hon Judi Moylan MP.
Following the Federal Election in 1996, Doug was appointed Senior Adviser to the Minister.
Doug has recently joined Farmwide to assist with the final reporting and ongoing content development, as well as assisting with Government Relations.
The Farmwide Online Services Project has received financial support from the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) to research and advance the understanding of the access to and benefits of online services by primary producers.
Farmwide's research for RIRDC will focus on the following areas:
Unmet Demand Study
The rapid development of the Intemet is highlighting both the difficulties in accessing the Intemet and the emerging demand for information of benefit to rural and regional subscribers. Content providers are beginning to respond to the challenge of presenting news, market information and commodity analysis in a manner suitable to online access. Producers are becoming more confident in their ability to utilise the Intemet to enhance the management of their rural enterprises.
In both instances, the opportunity to capitalise on and lead the development of online services in Australia to the benefit of rural and regional subscribers, is hampered by the lack of reliable, up-to-date information on the nature of demand for online services, the use of computer-based technology, the quality of telecommunications infrastructure and the experiences and expectations of users.
To develop a more comprehensive data series on these issues, Farmwide will be conducting a national survey of people living in rural Australia in September this year. This survey will be the first specifically undertaken to assess the unffiet demand for online services and the factors affecting that demand. As such, it will yield important data for the development and implementation of policy, marketing and product options tailored to the rural subscriber.
The opportunity to capitalise on and lead the development of online services in Australia to the benefit of rural and regional subscribers, is hampered by the lack of reliable, up-to-date information.
The experience of the Farmwide pilot participants has found that the cost and quality of access to online services is significantly affected by the existing telecommunications infrastructure. As part of the Uni-net Demand study, Farmwide will seek to elicit greater information on the impact and capacity of existing telecommunications infrastructure to facilitate and stimulate the adoption of leading-edge technology. This is an extension of the work undertaken by Dr Roger Buckeridge for RIRDC in 1996 and reported elsewhere in this publication.
In addition to the analysis of existing infrastructure, this study will examine the application of new and emerging technologies for their suitability to the needs of rural, regional and remote subscribers.
Coordinating Australian Rural Online Services
The Intemet is a huge resource of information and contacts that has evolved around parameters of universal access, and which appears to many people to have very little formal planning or management structure. Individuals, commercial organisations, governments and government departments, community groups and educational institutions are providing information and opportunity to people at a local, national or international level to benefit from and contribute to this wealth of information.
For rural users in Australia, the lack of an apparent planning structure, when combined with the cost and quality of access, creates an environment that is not conducive to 'beginners' exploring the Intemet and capitalising on the information and services available.
The coordination role will be to canvass with particular organisations their plans to provide information and services online and to advise and assist them, using the data and findings of the Farmwide Online Services Pilot Project and other ongoing research. The coordinator is supported by the research being undertaken by Farmwide, RIRDC and other organisations about rural customers' demonstrated information and service needs. This will enable a clear view of the long tenn needs of the rural community, where this can be addressed through online services and how best to present and deliver information, goods and other services to meet those needs.
For further information contact: Rosie Simpson, Project Manager, Farinwide.
Telephone (02)62736384, email rosies@msn.com.
The Australian Farmer's Guide to the Internet, produced by RIRDC and Farmwide Pty Ltd, will feature tips to help first-time and novice users of the Internet to understand and make the best use of its features, as well as an extensive directory of Australian agricultural and related sites.
Over 250 sites are listed in the directory. Each listing includes a short description of the site and its content, as well as how to find it. A five star rating system has been developed to help users assess the overall quality of each site.
This new and unique Australian product is the result of extensive work by RIRDC to encourage rural communities and industries to make the best use of new information technologies.
The guide follows the release of a report last year by RIRDC titled 'What's on the Web Now for Farmers' - a content analysis of Australian agricultural sites on the Intemet.
RIRDC Managing Director, Mr Peter Core, says the overwhelming amount of information available on the Internet can make it difficult, especially for new users, to quickly access material which is useful and relevant to their farm business.
He says the guide is tapping a strong demand for high quality, basic information about the Internet which will help users to save time, and find what they are looking for quickly and easily.
"The Internet can be an enormously valuable resource, and the amount of very good, practical fanning information, as well as products and services available, is growing daily.
"The Australian Fanner's Guide to the Intemet will give farmers a very good, basic understanding of what is available for them on the Intemet, and how to find it.
"It will bridge the gap for many rural users who have little or no experience of the Internet, but would like to give it a go."
The Australian Farmer's Guide to the Intemet will be available from RIRDC in paperback, accompanied by a start-up disk to help farmers to get online. For further details about the report or to purchase a copy, contact RIRDC on (02) 6272 4539.
In a project now currently underway and funded by RIRDC, researchers are applying this newfound information to a pilot project to deliver production support, in the form of training and other services, to farmers, advisers and scientists.
The project is a new approach which uses a versatile cropping system simulator, APSIM. Together with locally-collected soil, water and nitrogen data, APSIM enables farmers to simulate a particular paddock and/ or crop for specified management.
Farmers are being assisted to use APSIM to benchmark past crops in a way that helps them in tactical planning, exploring alternative actions and strategies.
Now the project is being trialled on the Intemet, to enable more farmers to access the technology than would be possible via traditional extension modes. Although the infrastructure is not yet available for widespread delivery of this technology, RIRDC's support is helping to ensure that APSIM will work effectively when it does go online.
The project will also help to evaluate the value of the Intemet in increasing the cost-effectiveness of Intemet for learning, planning and decision-making on-fann, and its potential for research extension.
For further information: DrRobert McCown, telephone (076) 88 1390, email: bob.mccown@tag.csiro.au.
With the support of RIRDC, the Centre (CIRCIT) has developed a simple guide for rural communities to help them identify the information technologies they need or want, and advises on how to obtain access.
The development of the guide is critical for rural communities who could benefit substantially from new technology, such as the Internet or satellite based systems, but need more information about what they offer and how to access them.
Mr Burke says this information is also particularly timely, as the importance of regional telecommunications has been given special recognition by the
Commonwealth Government in establishing a regional tele-communications infrastructure fund.
"The RTIF will fund projects which enhance telecommunications infrastructure and services in regional, rural and remote areas; help to increase access to and promote the use of services available through regional telecommunications networks; and reduce the disparities between rural and urban communities in accessing these services," he says.
"Small communities and regions will be able to apply for support from the RTIF for projects which are focussed on their town or district.
"The rural guide explains what's required and how communities can apply.
The guide also provides a stepby-step explanation of the various technologies available, how they work and their benefits. In addition, it assists communities to identify the applications best suited to meeting their diverse needs and provides advice on aggregating demand for applications and the services that support them.
The guide, to be released shortly, will be available from RIRDC. For further information on the project please contact CIRCIT on (03) 9248 1177 or email circit@circit.vut.edu.au.
A Frameworkfor developing regional communications initiatives, jointly funded by RIRDC, sets out a step-by-step process which enables communities to assess their telecommunication needs and how best to meet them.
By following the steps outlined, a region can create the means to improve communication networks, widen education and training opportunities, improve access to electronic service delivery by governments, facilitate the operation of businesses and help to build a stronger community and identity.
The Ipswich City Council Global InfoLinks project is one of several examples of a community which is realising the benefits of this approach. InfoLinks is helping to stimulate the region's economic and social development, to address information and communication needs and to stimulate job creation. It provides cheap access to online services, including government and community information and resources.
The Australian Telecommunication Users' Group's Managing Director, Allan Horsley, agrees that this approach to telecommunications should give people confidence that they can generate viable solutions to address their needs.
"From the perspective of telecommunications infrastructure and service providers the approach outlined in the Framework creates the incentive to engage with regions on a commercial basis, and enables all suppliers to deal with an entity representing key regional interests at a senior level."
Copies of the Framework are available from RIRDC. Further information about the project is available from CIRCIT, telephone 03 9248 1177, email circit@circit.vut.edu.au
Funding from RIRDC is enabling researchers to tackle this problem in two ways. The Kondinin Group - a WA-based farm improvement organisation - has embarked on an ambitious project over the next two years to update the Agdex classification system as well as develop a thesaurus to accommodate new technologies, for example computers, global positioning systems and the Intemet as well as cater for new industries such as emu farming, aquaculture and Australian wildflowers.
Agdex will then reflect modem farming practices, providing a relevant agricultural extension classification scheme which will assist publishers and providers of information well into the next century. This standard classification system will provide the foundation for efficient storage, retrieval, sharing and distribution of information in both paper and electronic forms.
In a related project, RIRDC has commissioned a study of options to improve the accessibility of agricultural information on the Intemet.
The research will identify the sorts of problems users have in finding information which currently results in considerable time spent Isurfing'thelntemet. This means that, compared with other more traditional means of gathering information, the Internet can be slow and cumbersome, as well as extremely frustrating - particularly for those users with poor infrastructure.
By proposing options to overcome these problems, it is hoped to improve the accessibility of information by users and assist them in ultimately making much better use of the resource.
For further information on the Kondinin Group project contact: Mrs Ruth Mclntyre, telephone (08)9478 3343 or email: Kgperth@ozemail.com.au
For further information on the Internet research contact: Mr Jim Groves, telephone (07) 5526 9698 or email grovesc@winshop.com.au
Last updated: 8 March 1999
Copyright © RIRDC
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/it2.htm