Understanding grower demographics, motivations and management practices to improve engagement, extension and industry resilience: a case study of the macadamia industry in the Northern Rivers, Australia

ABSTRACT

Research and development programs for improved productivity and profitability in horticulture have focused largely on understanding biophysical factors and production and harvest technologies. By contrast, relatively few studies focus upon the existing status of a rural community in terms of demographics, rationales and motivations underlying current farm management practices. Understanding such factors is increasingly important as pressures from climate change, globalised market forces, land-use competition and ageing workforces intersect on farms and for farmers. This paper explores experiences among macadamia growers in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, with the aim to better understand and improve the targeting of development programs to meet grower needs and aspirations, for improved industry resilience. Results suggest that growers are a diverse, ageing demographic who came into the industry with a variety of skill sets. Noting a lack of previous farming experience for many growers, we highlight the need to consider information transfer and succession planning, along with aspirations to consolidate properties and skills. New engagement approaches are recommended, with tailored extension to different grower groups. To aid with this process, a classification tree was developed for the purposes of separating growers into groups with different support needs.

KEYWORDS:

• Classification tree
• demographics
• farming
• macadamias
• Northern Rivers
• survey
• horticulture

Acknowledgements

Funding for this research was provided by Horticulture Innovation Australia and Southern Cross University. The authors would like to express their thanks to the macadamia growers of the Northern Rivers region for their participation and insights regarding their industry. We also wish to thank the staff at the Australian Macadamia Society for their support during the project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Kerrie Stimpson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5279-5675

Hanabeth Luke http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8082-7988

David Lloyd http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2356-6608

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by Horticultural Innovation Australia and Southern Cross University.