2nd International OFE conference- 2023

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https://hdl.handle.net/1813/116214

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Demonstrating the value of soil testing to support Australian farmers’ local soil knowledge through a digital tool and action learning
de Bruyn, Lisa Lobry; Guppy, Christopher; Oliver, Ivanah; Birchall, Craig; Warren, Annie; Knox, Oliver (2024)
The level of soil testing required to understand soil change is not widely practiced by Australian farmers; to a large extent, they rely on tacit knowledge. To support farmers’ local understanding of soil performance and improve the value of soil testing, soil scientists and local agronomists engaged in a series of action-learning workshops throughout New South Wales to demonstrate how an online remote sensing tool can be used to strategically soil sample. Once the farmers identified soil testing locations, the researchers conducted soil sampling at those sites in consultation with the farmers. In the follow-up workshop, where soil test results were presented to the farmers, nearly all agreed that the results aligned with their local knowledge of their paddock. However, only half of the farmers said they would use the digital tool in future soil sampling, but they would also consider soil testing more frequently.
Farmers’ competencies for transforming agricultural livelihoods: A competency model approach for designing, implementing, evaluating, and adapting capacity-strengthening initiatives
Gottret, Maria Verónica; Best, Rupert; Page, Sarah; Rosenow, Kristin (2024)
Access to information, capacity strengthening, and on-farm experimentation—key functions of agricultural extension and innovation—are needed for smallholder farmers to restore and protect their land, improve the productivity and resilience of their production systems, engage with markets, and ultimately achieve sustainable livelihoods. This requires deliberate efforts to strengthen smallholder farmers’ competencies for success in smallholder agriculture. A competency model approach to inform the design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and adaptation of capacity strengthening activities provides a practical framework for improving the effectiveness of capacity building strategies and activities. It allows goals and objectives to be explicitly defined and clearly communicated, guides the structure and content of training materials, and frames the assessment of competencies to inform their delivery. This paper summarizes the experience of Catholic Relief Services in using a competency model approach to build Skills for Marketing and Rural Transformation (SMART Skills) in Southern and Eastern Africa and Central America, and in evaluating outcomes and impacts.
On-farm research network ecosystem increased awareness and use of digital agriculture
Balboa, Guillermo; Thompson, Laura; Puntel, Laila (2024)
Digital agriculture (DA) can help meet the 2030 United Nation Sustainable Development Goals. In this study, a survey was deployed to characterize farmers’ knowledge, adoption of DA technologies, barriers to their adoption, and perceived value of DA in the state of Nebraska (Nebraska Farmers) and among the Nebraska On-Farm Research Network (NOFRN) annual meeting attendees (NOFRN). The results were contrasted to understand the impact of NOFRN on DA understanding and adoption. The questions included the definition of DA, technologies adopted, barriers to adoption, and perceived value of DA. The results show that NOFRN attendees have a better understanding of what DA is (more unique words and words to define DA), and a larger proportion identifies and measures DA benefits. Of the 34 DA technology options, NOFRN attendees used 6% more technologies than Nebraska farmers. The NOFRN was shown to be an effective program to increase awareness and adoption of DA technologies for more sustainable farming systems.
Assessing the impact of soil clod and seeding rate on soybean seedling establishment and yield using a Bayesian approach
Habibi, Luthfan Nur; Matsui, Tsutomu; Tanaka, Takashi S. T. (2024)
The establishment of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] seedlings are largely affected by environmental conditions, including precipitation and soil properties; these factors often affect yield. Soil clods are the product of soil properties and weather conditions. In this current study, remote sensing imagery was used to assess seedling establishment and soil clods during the emergence stage. Our study investigated the interaction among soil clods present in a field, established seedlings, and yield. The soil clods were used as surrogate covariates of soil properties in assessing the effects on yield mediated by seedling establishment. A multilevel mediation analysis using the Bayesian approach was performed. Moreover, an on-farm experiment was conducted to test several seeding rates. The presence of soil clods negatively affected seedling establishment and subsequently reduced yields. Moreover, the optimum seeding rates varied between fields. Further investigation needs to be conducted to determine how environmental factors impact yield during the reproductive stage.
Building an on-farm research framework to rapidly respond to farmers’ needs
Hawkins, Elizabeth M.; Hartschuh, Jason M.; Douridas, Amanda R.; Fulton, John P. (2024)
At its best, on-farm research enables timely fact gathering to facilitate improved farm- level decision-making. The Ohio State University eFields program was created in 2017 to create a community of researchers, farmers, and agriculture professionals who are driven to learn through applied research and share knowledge. The eFields team was approached by farmers with questions about the value of soil health testing. Thus, in 2020, an eFields soil health trial was initiated. It demonstrates the benefits of an on-farm research framework that can enable quick responses to emerging needs, mobilize a network of research partners, and deliver results that are useful and timely. Since 2020, the eFields team has collected soil health samples from 376 fields across Ohio and has shared knowledge about the value of soil health tests, the impact of management on soil health, and the connection between soil health and yield.
Profitable improvement in rangeland conditions: Cunyu Station’s achievement of synonymous objectives in the highly variable southern rangelands of Western Australia
Plunkett, Brad; d’Abbadie, Christophe (2024)
This case examines the objectives and management practices of Cunyu Station in Western Australia from 1990–2017. The owners’ objectives were to apply best practice knowledge augmented with localized management skills to rigorously adjust total grazing pressure (TGP) from all species (cattle, kangaroos, camels, horses, and donkeys) to levels commensurate with improved landscape conditions, minimized operating costs, and stable cash flows. A combination of infrastructure investment, feral herbivore control, use of the native apex predator (dingo) for kangaroo control, creation, and maintenance of around 18 months of ‘buffer’ pasture, and finishing 30-month-old steers on the Station were key management practices for successfully achieving these goals. This case is accompanied by modeling that validates the Station’s pasture ‘buffering’ approach by comparing profitability from stocking at different TGP rates by using 30 years of historical seasons and prices. This case demonstrates that improving livestock productivity, stable profitability, and improving range conditions/biodiversity can be synonymous. A key issue of financing the transition to this system is discussed.
Helping farmers experiment with biologicals by adding data layers
Longchamps, Louis; Toure, Fatimetou; Cai, Shumei; Lanza, Phillip; Chan Fu Wei, Marcelo; Yore, Alexander; McElwee, Alicia; Buckley, Daniel (2024)
While the nitrogen (N) cost for maize fertilization increases, new products, such as biologicals, may offer a cheaper and more sustainable alternative as an N source. Before applying a biological to their entire farm, farmers are eager to learn whether a product works for them. Based on the biological company’s suggestions, the experimentation process consists of reducing the N rate by forty units in areas treated with biologicals and applying a full rate of N in the control area. If no difference is observed, this would indicate that the product works. This design leaves little room for interpretation for farmers looking at yield. A group of scientists from Cornell University proposed supporting their experimentation by collecting additional information, such as a crop’s N status and the presence of the biological organism in the soil. The results of this current study showed that yield alone could not have provided a clear answer, and that this partnership between farmers and scientists proved beneficial in the farmers’ learning process.
‘Above all, do no harm:’ The co-development of cover cropping strategies for high-value tree fruit within a living lab in British Columbia, Canada
Hannam, Kirsten; MacDonald, Jesse; DeLury, Naomi; Munro, Paige; Sharifi, Mehdi; Forge, Tom; Nelson, Gail; Buchler, Hans; Hart, Miranda; Bittman, Shabtai (2024)
In 2022, a ‘Living Lab’ was established across four agricultural sectors in British Columbia (BC), Canada, to explore practices for mitigating climate change. Cover cropping is widely promoted as a natural climate solution but is not used extensively in BC orchards. Considering the time and money required to establish productive orchards, which must be maintained over many years, the adoption of new management practices presents greater risks than for annual crops, which are only maintained for one season. Using the Living Lab, farmers, researchers, and industry employed a co-development model to identify and address concerns surrounding cover crop establishment costs and methods, including weed, irrigation, pest and disease, and nutrient management. Using this co-development model, cover cropping experiments were established in two orchards in 2023. As more on- farm trials ‘bear fruit,’ the co-development process can be used to build local expertise in cover cropping while carefully monitoring and protecting farmers’ long-term investments.
On-farm experiments: Five principles for success
Roques, Susie; Clarke, Sarah (2024)
While On-Farm Experimentation (OFE) has great value to farmers, it inevitably comes secondary to their core businesses; this can lead to risks of experimental errors, abandonment at busy times, or limited time for planning. Hence, OFE must use practical approaches to minimize disruption to farming practices and additional workloads on farmers while maintaining experimental quality. Based on extensive experience conducting research with farmers, we propose five principles for OFE success: 1) collaboration, 2) simple treatments, 3) consideration of underlying variations, 4) replication, and 5) assessments planned in advance. Principles 2–4 are supported by a meta-analysis of over 300 experiments that analyzed factors that can affect the precision of yield-map analyses. All five principles are illustrated by the successes and failures of experiments run in 2022 by a ‘Crop Nutrition Club’ of seventeen farmers and Association of Independent Crop Consultants (AICC) agronomists to explore optimal fertilizer rates and products for cereal crops.
Assessing the effects of fertilizer management and soil characteristics on rice yield and quality in Japanese mountainous paddy fields
Marfuah, Ummi; He, Jingyun; Kojima, Kazuki; Matsui, Tsutomu; Tanaka, Takashi S. T. (2024)
Japanese rice farmers manage many small-scale paddy fields in mountainous regions. This situation challenges farmers’ decision-making regarding crop management depending on each field’s characteristics. Fertilizer inputs balance rice productivity and grain quality while enhancing the farm’s profits. This current research attempted to characterize the effect of field-specific fertilization rates and soil characteristics on rice yield and quality via on-farm experiments using a farmer’s yield monitor in 168 fields over three years. The Bayesian approach was employed to model the relationships among fertilizer, soil characteristics, and underlying unquantified factors, such as a farmer’s management block and climatic season. The results indicate that yield variability is mostly explained by the farmer’s management block rather than by fertilizer and soil characteristics. Therefore, lower fertilization rates could contribute to improving cost efficiency. However, a better understanding of yield- and quality-limiting factors is necessary for each farmer’s management block to optimize crop management.

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