The study on different extension approaches was undertaken in the Bathurst area of New South Wales, Australia. One hundred farmers were surveyed in random pairs according to those who belong to the formal group, ???Landcare???, and those who did not. The survey included questions on personal, physical resources, ecological and economic factors, farm practices and management (including actual practice, use of extension methods and information sources) Focussing on behavioural change over time, attitudes, perceptions and intentions. The impact of extension approach on different levels of innovation was considered: simple (e.g. tree planting), medium (e.g. pasture development) and complex (soil erosion control) on behavioural change. It was hypothesised that the ???group??? extension approach should be more effective with complex innovations, but the main significant differences found were in level of tree planting (higher in government funded Landcare), money spent on erosion control (including tree planting) and attitudes to the severity of local erosion (all higher in Landcare members). There were no other differences in attitudes, intentions or change in farming practice except that non-Landcare farmers planted more pasture and applied more lime. The outcomes did not support the hypothesis, and it was not possible to distinguish the differences that did occur in performance from extension approach versus access to funds. Field days are an important extension method for the adoption of cropping by landholders. Among the different extension methods, those who conducted erosion control through pastures, preferred government officers and meetings. Those who adopted tree planting and were in Landcare preferred magazines as the extension method. This added further weight to the argument that the formal group extension approach may not be perceived by its members to have any influence on adoption at this level. Generally, mass media was more important in the early stages of adoption and personal influence more important in the evaluation stage. This also applied to simple versus complex innovations. Surprisingly all farmers placed a very high reliance on government officers for information and decision-making, particularly those in Landcare, compared to neighbours or family. Formal group extension still needs assessing but using models other than Landcare.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/187633 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Ajili, Abdulazim, School of Fibre Science & Technology, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Fibre Science and Technology |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Abdulazim Ajili, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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