THE FULL REPORT
This is a summary of the RIRDC full report titled “Improving Farmers’ Management Practices Through Learning and Group Participation” (98/71, UNE-40A) by Ian Reeve, University of New England (phone 02 6773 2220, fax 02 6773 3245) and Professor Alan Black, Edith Cowan University (phone 089 400 5844, fax 089 400 5866). Order from RIRDC on phone 02 6272 4819 or online at http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/cat/alphalist.htm

 

Introduction

Continuing education increases the likelihood of farmers adopting sustainable farming practices and is critical for maintaining the productivity of Australia’s natural resource base, a study commissioned by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) has found.

Based on a survey of primary producers in northern New South Wales (NSW), the research was carried out by Mr Ian Reeve of the University of New England’s Rural Development Centre and Professor Alan Black of the School of Social and Cultural Science at the Edith Cowan University in Western Australia.

The study had five objectives aimed at:


publicising the findings among education providers, extension staff and policy makers.
The report makes a series of recommendations relating to these objectives.

The study

The study was based on a large mail survey of primary producers in northern NSW. Participants were selected from the state electoral rolls and from a list of past clients of the NSW Agriculture Home Study Program.

Almost 2,500 questionnaires were mailed out with two reminders. This resulted in an effective response rate of about 50 per cent—after allowing for households not engaged in primary production and where there were three or more partners in one operation.

Slightly more than half of the useable questionnaires were from farms on which broadacre crops were grown. The remainder were from graziers and horticultural farmers.

Analysis of responses from broadacre farming was reported separately to the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

The report covers 600 responses from farms with grazing and horticultural enterprises, and focuses on the 92 per cent of farm households which comprise a married or cohabiting couple with or without children.

The study was undertaken in two stages—a pilot study and the main survey.

Examination of the responses from the pilot study enabled the questionnaires to be modified where it dealt with sustainable practices in the grains industry, so that the range of practices on which information was sought was increased.

Initially almost 2,400 questionnaires were sent out in the main survey.

Later, almost 100 extra questionnaires were mailed, when it was found insufficient responses were being received from grain growers, to ensure equal balance between them and other producers.

A reminder letter and an additional copy of the questionnaire was sent out where there had been no response in five weeks. A second reminder was sent out to those who had not responded within another five weeks.

The returned questionnaires were coded and entered into spreadsheets for analysis. Initial analysis dealt with internal consistency checks built into the questionnaire to ensure that accurate information was obtained on the structure of the farm business.

More detailed analysis involved developing an index of adoption of sustainable practices and giving the responses in the survey a ranking against this index on a scale of zero to three.

Ranking was based on assessing the likelihood of the practice continuing indefinitely and not being halted by either internal farm factors, e.g. pest resistance, or external factors, such as public pressure for discontinuation.

The results

The context in which the results emerge is the finding that 92 per cent of farm households surveyed consisted of male and female marital partners with or without additional related children and adults. This indicated little doubt that the farm family is the dominant social setting within which decision-making about agricultural production takes place.

The research shows, however, that the farm family faces increasing stresses from changing social norms and from threats to agricultural sustainability caused by declining profitability, climatic variability and environmental threats.

The report says the farm family is the social unit within which these stresses and competing demands have to be resolved. It says the need to ensure sustainability is just one of the many problems competing for attention.

Of survey respondents with cattle or sheep enterprises, four per cent had attended ProGraze workshops and two per cent of these reported using some of the practices learned there.

Among households with sheep enterprises, 55 per cent reported they were using practices from the Wormkill or Drenchplan programs with their sheep (see table at right).

Thirty-three per cent of dairy farm respondents were reported to be using practices from the Project 21 Program, such as measuring pasture growth, top dressing pastures and improving sowing practices.

Among horticulturalists, 35 per cent reported using integrated pest management.

The study found that 45 per cent of all respondents had formal education qualifications beyond high school level, and 48 per cent had taken part in further education since completing their formal education, as shown in the table at the top of the next page.
 
 

Table 1: Proportion of respondents mentioning various
components of the Wormkill and Drenchplan Programs.

Participation in further education increases the likelihood of adopting sustainable practices.

Farmers who had adopted sustainable practices were twice as likely to have a male or female partner who had participated in further education compared with farmers who had not.

Participation in community groups also related to the adoption of sustainable practices. For males, the highest level of group membership was in bushfire brigades (37 per cent), followed by landcare and church groups (18 per cent). Females also were likely to be members of church groups (26 per cent) and bushfire brigades (13 per cent). Those who had adopted sustainable practices were almost twice as likely to be members of these kinds of groups.

As shown in the table 2, sources of information for respondents’ farm businesses came mainly from accountants and weekly rural newspapers (72 per cent), but in contrast, there were no obviously clear relationships between adoption of sustainable practices and use of information or professional advice.
 


Table 2: Proportion of respondents who regarded various sources of
information as extremely or fairly important to their farm business.



Farm households showed considerable variation in the modes of information and skill acquisition they followed. At one end of the range was about seven per cent of the households where there had been participation in further education. This group also included a male partner who was a member of a landcare group and placed high priority on information materials from the NSW Agriculture Department. At the other end of the range were two groups of households which made relatively less use of the full range of sources of information and skill acquisition. These comprised about one-third of households.

Table 3: Highest level of formal education attained

There was no significant difference across these groups in terms of adopting sustainable practices, but there was a clear relationship with the proportion of households in each group that had made changes to management in the previous five years.

Households in the further education participation group were about twice as likely to have made changes to physical and financial management, compared with the two groups which made relatively less use of sources of information and skill acquisition.

There also was no significant relationship between adopting sustainable practices and using social networks for advice.

The study shows considerable variation in the ways that farm and household tasks are shared by men and women. Where tasks are undertaken along traditional lines, women’s participation in further education has been markedly lower.

Another important finding is the extent to which farm women are involved in what would have traditionally been regarded as men’s work. The study suggests this is occurring in around 60 per cent of farm households compared with about one-quarter of households where men are involved in household tasks regarded traditionally as women’s work.

Almost 60 per cent of households had one or more members engaged in off-farm employment. But regardless of whether men or women are working off-farm, use of contract labour, or whether or not there are children, the extent of sharing farm and household tasks remains about the same.

This suggests that dysfunctional relationships are a real possibility in farm families as a consequence of the pressures on them caused by off-farm work, substituting family labour for contract labour, or life-cycle changes.

Dysfunctional family relationships may be a barrier to educational participation, but the feasibility of policy intervention is low.

In contrast, more straightforward approaches to improving availability of courses, the flexibility of their delivery, and reducing costs, are more likely to increase levels of participation in further education.

Recommendations

The researchers recommend that support for providing information to farm households on sustainable practices, and providing rural areas with further education on farm management, sustainability and family relationships, should at least be maintained at current levels or, if possible, increased.

Providers should give high priority to offering computer courses in rural areas and make every effort to ensure flexibility in their delivery of further education.

There also should be increased emphasis on delivering courses through farmer groups, preferably with some form of financial support.

As well, the feasibility of providing some form of government support for families to employ ‘farm sitters’ while they attended courses and workshops should be investigated.