Rural Practice Change
Overview
Rural Practice Change provides insights and lessons from research into adoption of new practices by farmers and other rural landholders. This webpage houses the freely available materials for professional development and information from events and publications involving a national team of Australian experts working in this field.
ADOPT: A tool for exploring and predicting the level and speed of adoption of new agricultural practices. The tool is available for free and has been downloaded by over 1000 users. A new online version has been released in 2018.
Paper about ADOPT: An open access paper at Agricultural Systems, this has been downloaded over 10,000 times since it was published in late 2017.
Book, 2011: A book called Changing Land Management: Adoption of New Practices by Rural Landholders was published on 1 March 2011.
Review paper, 2006: A major review paper was published on adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders. This paper was the impetus to establish this multi-disciplinary, multi-state alliance.
Symposiums: A set of video recordings of all presentations made at the Melbourne Symposium held at the University of Melbourne, and a subsequent Perth Symposium on 8th July, 2009 held at the University of Western Australia.
The following resources are for students and academics in the agricultural extension, agricultural science, natural resource management, rural and environmental sociology, and social and human geography areas, and people working as agricultural extension agents, educators and trainers, agricultural researchers and research managers, policy advisors and managers in government, private sector agronomists advising farmers, non-government organisations and social researchers.
Adoption and Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool (ADOPT)
ADOPT is a tool that provides a step-by-step approach to evaluating and predicting the likely level of adoption and diffusion of specific agricultural innovations. Predictions are made in response to the answers to a series of 22 questions, which the user responds to with a particular innovation and a particular target population of potential adopters in mind.
ADOPT is based on the insights from the material presented on this web site. The 22 questions cover issues relating to the innovation and the target population. In each case, the questions explore the relative advantage of the innovation and its trialability.
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Kuehne, G., Llewellyn, R., Pannell, D.J., Wilkinson, R., Dolling, P., Ouzman, J. and Ewing, M. (2017). Predicting farmer uptake of new agricultural practices: a tool for research, extension and policy, Agricultural Systems 156, 115-125.
Kuehne, G., Nicholson, C., Robertson, M., Llewellyn, R., and McDonald, C. (2012). Engaging project proponents in R&D evaluation using bio-economic and socio-economic tools, Agricultural Systems 108: 94-103.
Pannell, D.J., Marshall, G.R., Barr, N., Curtis, A., Vanclay, F. and Wilkinson, R. (2006). Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46(11): 1407-1424.
Free access: http://www.publish.csiro.au/nid/72/paper/EA05037.htm.
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Pannell, D., & Vanclay, F. (2011). Changing Land Management: Adoption of New Practices by Rural Landholders. CSIRO Publishing.
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Kuehne, G., Llewellyn, R.S., Pannell, D.J., Wilkinson, R., Dolling, P. and Ewing, M.A. (2011). ADOPT: a tool for predicting adoption of agricultural innovations, Paper presented at the 55th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, Melbourne, 8-11 February 2011.
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This collection of resources is intended to help someone who is relatively new to the area of adoption of innovations in agriculture get up to speed quickly and efficiently.
Reviews and meta-analyses
Lindner, R.K. (1987). Adoption and diffusion of technology: an overview. In: ‘Technological change in postharvest handling and transportation of grains in the humid tropics’. (Eds. B.R. Champ, E. Highley, J.V. Remenyi) pp. 144-151. (ACIAR Proceedings No. 19, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research: Canberra).
Feder, G., Umali, D. (1993). The adoption of agricultural innovations: a review. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 43, 215-239.
Guerin, L.J. and Guerin, T.F. (1994). Constraints to the adoption of innovations in agricultural research and environmental management: a review. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 34, 549-571.
Pannell, D., Marshall, G., Barr, N., Curtis, A., Vanclay, F., Wilkinson, R., 2006. Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation technologies by rural landholders. Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 46, 1407-1424.
Knowler, D., Bradshaw, B., 2007. Farmers' adoption of conservation agriculture: a review and synthesis of recent research. Food Policy 32, 25-48.
Pike, T. 2008. “Understanding Behaviours in a Farming Context: Bringing Theoretical and Applied Evidence Together from across DEFRA and Highlighting Policy Relevance and Implications for Future Research.” DEFRA Agricultural Change and Environment Observatory Discussion Paper, November: 1–29.
Prokopy, L.S., K. Floress, D. Klotthor-Weinkauf, and A. Baumgart-Getz. 2008. Determinants of Agricultural Best Management Practice Adoption: Evidence from the Literature. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 63(5): 300–311.
Baumgart-Getz, A., Stalker Prokopy, L., Floress, K., 2012. Why farmers adopt best management practice in the United States: a meta-analysis of the adoption literature. J. Environ. Manag. 96 (1), 17–25.
Montes De Oca Munguia, O., and R. Llewellyn. 2020. The Adopters Versus the Technology: Which Matters More When Predicting or Explaining Adoption. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy 42(1): 80–91.
Montes de Oca Munguia, O., Pannell, D.J. and Llewellyn, R. (2021). Understanding the adoption of innovations in agriculture: A review of selected conceptual models, Agronomy 11, 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11010139.
Rosário, J., Madureira, L., Marques, C. and Silva, R. (2022). Understanding Farmers’ Adoption of Sustainable Agriculture Innovations: A Systematic Literature Review, Agronomy 12, 2879.
Junyu Lu et al. (2022). A meta-analysis of agricultural conservation intentions, behaviors, and practices: Insights from 35 years of quantitative literature in the United States. Journal of Environmental Management 323: 116240.
Pronti, A., Auci, S., Berbel, J. (2024). Water conservation and saving technologies for irrigation. A structured literature review of econometric studies on the determinants of adoption, Agricultural Water Management 299, 108838.
Conceptual frameworks:
Abadi Ghadim AK, Pannell DJ (1999) A conceptual framework of adoption of an agricultural innovation. Agricultural Economics 21, 145-154.
Pannell Discussion: https://www.pannelldiscussions.net/2020/02/330-adoption-special-issue/
Meet the Rural Practice Change experts
Left to right: Geoff Kaine, Rick Llewellyn, Neil Barr, Allan Curtis, Frank Vanclay, Andrew Campbell, Dave Pannell, Roger Wilkinson, Graham Marshall.
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Professor David Pannell's research includes the economics of land and water conservation; environmental policy; farmer adoption of conservation practices; risk; and economics of farming systems. He is author of 200 journal articles and book chapters, with awards for research in the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK, including the 2009 Eureka Prize for Interdisciplinary Research. He also produces regular "Pannell Discussions" on these issues.
Contact: David.Pannell@uwa.edu.au
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Dr Rick Llewellyn has a background in adoption of agricultural research and in cropping systems. His research aims to contribute to the development of strategies for sustainable farming in southern Australia. His expertise is in adoption of agricultural technology; integrated weed management; farming systems and extension; precision agriculture.
Contact: Rick.Llewellyn@csiro.au
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Dr Neil Barr's research interests include social change in Australian agricultural communities, social change and impact assessment in irrigation communities, adoption of new technology for management of dryland salinity and soil health, community involvement and consultation in catchment management and social research methodologies both quantitative and qualitative.
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Mr Andrew Campbell has been at the cutting edge of natural resource management in Australia for 25 years. He has played influential roles in research (notably as CEO of Land and Water Australia from 2000-2006), in policy as a senior executive in the Australian Government, and in extension with the Victorian Government. Andrew was instrumental in the development of Landcare, working with Rick Farley from the National Farmers' Federation and Phillip Toyne from the Australian Conservation Foundation to develop the proposal to then Prime Minister Bob Hawke that catalysed the Decade of Landcare. He was Australia's first National Landcare Facilitator from 1989-92.
Andrew’s family has been farming in western Victoria since the 1860s.
Presentations from the experts
The following presentations are from Understanding Practice Change by Farmers - A National Symposium, hosted in Melbourne on 14th November, 2008. The event attracted around 400 participants, including delegates from the public sector, regional natural resource management bodies, private consultants, media, agricultural input suppliers, universities, CSIRO and students.
The WA Symposium in Perth in the following year, 8th July, 2009 on Understanding Practice Change by Rural Landholders included several speakers from the original event, supplemented by a range of additional experts (see list of presenters and topics below).
ANDREW CAMPBELL
Setting the Scene: Introductory Perspectives
ROGER WILKINSON
The Many Meanings of Adoption
GEOFF KAINE
Identifying Potential Adopters of an Agricultural Innovation
GRAHAM MARSHALL
What “community” means for farmer adoption of conservation practices
NEIL BARR
Joining the Dots: Climate Change, Supply Chains, Rural Restructuring and Rural Practice Change
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Professor Allan Curtis' research interests include the policy and institutional arrangements supporting catchment management, understanding rural landholder adoption, watershed organisations, and the evaluation of natural resource management programs. Current projects relate to capacity building, dryland salinity, Landcare, river frontages and wetlands, farm forestry, aquaculture and provision of social data to underpin catchment management.
Recent experience hasincluded work exploring adaptive management, triple bottom line reporting, public perceptions of risk in quarantine and aquaculture, preparing socio-economic profiles of catchment communities, and assessments of the socio-economic impact of changes in land use (forestry) and resource access (fishing, irrigation water).
Allan has extensive experience with the range of quantitative and qualitative social research methods and is a leading practitioner of mail survey techniques. The evaluation framework he helped develop is currently being used by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry for the evaluation of the Australian Government's $120 million National Landcare Program.
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Dr Geoff Kaine's fields of special competence include adoption of new technologies and practices by primary producers and market based instruments in natural resource policy.
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Dr Graham Marshall’s early career was as an agricultural and resource economist with the New South Wales Department of Agriculture, mainly working on natural resource issues (eg, soil salinisation and waterlogging) that southern Murray-Darling Basin irrigators were addressing through industry-based programs. His research interests now extend to ecological economics, institutional economics, and common property studies. His current work focuses on community-based natural resource management (NRM), particularly where cooperation from farmers is important.
Contact: gmarshal@une.edu.au
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Professor Frank Vanclay's research interests include social impact assessment, social aspects of natural resource management, environmental management, farming and agriculture.
Contact: frank.vanclay@rug.nl
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Mr Roger Wilkinson's research interests include social change in rural areas, adoption of new technology, perceptions of risk, social aspects of biotechnology community involvement and consultation and scientific and local knowledge.
Contact: roger.wilkinson@dpi.vic.gov.au
DAVID PANNELL
Understanding Practice Change by Rural Landholders
FRANK VANCLAY
Understanding extension and practice change over time
DAVID PANNELL
Policy Perspectives on Rural Practice Change
RICK LLEWELLYN
Identifying cogs in the adoption wheel: opportunities to target extension
ALLAN CURTIS
Property Turnover in Victoria: Trends and Implications for Natural Resource Management
WA Symposium in Perth 8th July, 2009
There is vast research literature on this subject, but it is often under-utilised in practice. The aim of this symposium was to provide the key insights from past and current research and make them available in an understandable and useful form. The second aim was for some groups involved in encouraging rural practice change to present their insights based on practical experience.
SPEAKERS
Roger Wilkinson (Department of Primary Industries, Victoria) "The many meanings of adoption"
Rick Llewellyn (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, South Australia) "Targeting extension effectively"
Romy Greiner (River Consulting, Queensland) "Motivations, risk perceptions and adoption of conservation practices by farmers"
David Pannell (University of WA) "Overview: Understanding and promoting adoption of new practices by rural landholders" and "Policy aspects of rural practice change"
Sally Marsh (University of WA) "Using incentive payments to promote rural practice change"
Frank D'Emden (Department of Agriculture and Food WA) "Adoption of conservation tillage"
Karen Barroga (University of WA) "Constraints on adoption of complex technologies"
Perry Dolling (Department of Agriculture and Food WA) "Constraints to the widespread adoption of lucerne in Western Australia"
Peter Sullivan (Avon Catchment Council), Justin Bellanger (South Coast NRM) and Rolan Deutekom (Northern Agricultural Catchments Council) "Regional NRM bodies’ experiences in pursuing farmer practice change"
Michael Robertson (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems) "Multiple methods to understand practice change"
Kevin Goss (Future Farm Industries CRC) Chair and wrap-up session "Key points and implications"
SPONSORS
We are grateful to our sponsors who supported the above two symposiums:
Department of Primary Industries, Victoria
Landmark - an AWB company
Future Farm Industries CRC
University of Melbourne
University of Western Australia
Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation