Resilience building in agricultural extension programmes: application of a resilience framework and development of a farmer-focused assessment tool

ABSTRACT

Purpose

Participatory extension programmes (PEPs) are a well-known approach to achieve change on an on-farm level. This study examines whether there is a change in on-farm resilience due to PEP participation, by identifying whether participation leads to an increase in resilience capacities, and which aspects of the programme contribute to this.

Design/Methodology/Approach

A case study was selected in Aotearoa New Zealand, where 33 interviewees had participated in a 3-year PEP.

Findings

Findings show that participation in the PEP led to an increase in the resilience capacities robustness and adaptability. Attributes via which the PEP contributed to this are: (i) increasing openness by connecting to others in the community and learning collectively, (ii) increasing diversity by using new tools and diversifying land use, and (iii) improving system reserves by building labour and feed resources.

Practical implications

A resilience framework is applied to evaluation that helps decision-makers identify the multifaceted effects of PEP participation. Insights from the study also contribute to future design of agricultural PEPs, by enabling resilience-building attributes through a novel ‘resilience wheel’ assessment tool.

Theoretical implications

Novel theoretical insights from this study include that PEPs can be evaluated by using a resilience framework and show which resilience attributes are specifically important to establish change via PEP participation.

Originality/value

This research is the first to evaluate the effect of PEP participation from a resilience perspective.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• robustness
• adaptability
• participatory extension
• farming systems
• programme design

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all the farmers who participated in our interviews. We also thank our colleagues Greg Hall, Phoebe Gill, and Deirdre Kirk for their assistance and ideas during the research. Furthermore, we would also like to acknowledge the contribution of the Extension 350 partner organisations: Northland Regional Council, Northland Inc., Ministry for Primary Industries, Beef and Lamb New Zealand and DairyNZ Inc.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The participants of this study did not give written consent for their data to be shared publicly, so due to the supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This research was conducted with funding from the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund of the Ministry for Primary Industries. It was partially funded by New Zealand Dairy Farmers through DairyNZ, Inc. (Hamilton, New Zealand), contract WEN1802.

Notes on contributors

Jorie Knook

Jorie Knook is a social scientist based at the Department of Land Management and Systems at Lincoln University, Aotearoa, New Zealand. Her main research focus is on landowner behaviour around the uptake of new practices, values, and beliefs, by focusing on complex topics such as climate change, water quality, and farmer wellbeing. In her work, she applies quantitative and qualitative methods, to study practice adoption as well as the change in beliefs and values underlying sustained behavioural change.

Callum Eastwood

Callum Eastwood is a senior scientist based at DairyNZ in Aotearoa New Zealand. His interests are: people in dairy, effective use of new technologies in dairy systems, technological innovation systems, improving co-ordination between farmers and technology developers, design of social research in agriculture, integration of data into farm decision making, adult learning processes as applied to agriculture, and guiding appropriate use of tools in grazing management. His key accomplishments include leadership of the trans-Tasman precision dairy strategy, bringing precision dairy issues into Dairy Australia strategy, instigating South Australia precision dairy group, and a review of the Aotearoa New Zealand Pastures from Space programme.

Luke Beehre

Luke Beehre is a project leader for extension work in Northland, in Aotearoa New Zealand. He conducts this work on behalf of the Ministry for Primary Industries, Northland Regional Council, DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand and Northland Inc. His background and specialist areas include agricultural project management, finance and farming.

Karen Mitchelmore

Karen Mitchelmore leads the monitoring and evaluation service area at consultancy and research company Scarlatti, based in Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has worked as a researcher and evaluator for over 15 years and has spent the last decade working largely on evaluation projects within the primary industry. Karen undertakes and evaluates complex change-based projects, enjoys developing dynamic monitoring and evaluation frameworks; and supports stakeholders to grow their monitoring and evaluation capability and confidence. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University and a Post Graduate Diploma in Social Sector Evaluation Research from Massey University.

Adam Barker

Adam Barker founded consultancy and research company Scarlatti in 2004 and focuses on extension programme design, market research, workforce research, impact modelling and operations research. He is currently based in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, but was previously Chief Operating Officer of Celentis, a commercial science company owned by AgResearch, and before that was a consultant for leading strategy consultancy McKinsey & Company, based in London. Adam holds a Bachelor of Engineering (First Class Honours) from the University of Auckland and a Doctorate in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, UK.