OpenFields

Is there a case for learning and education in farming – what is it and what evidence is required?

A viewpoint paper on the need for farmer involvement in education for change, development, innovation and sustainability in agriculture.

Year of Publication2009

Farm businesses ask: “What you can do to help us with our problem, which is adapting to the changed role of agriculture in society”. This article argues that education is the under utilized component to assist change and that the education being delivered is mired in the conflict over the resources used by agriculture. It is government that has failed here, especially through the public sector agencies involved. However the farmers and their private business support are culpable in this. The answer must be for farmers to become more involved, by setting and implementing the agenda. Importantly, they need to take more direct action using the money that has been diverted away from production based payments to rural development funds. With it they should set up local education for farmers to use local farmer knowledge, the missing link to enact sustainability.

This item is categorised as follows

• Subject Collection > Training & skills
• Subject Collection > Rural policy & development > UK rural policy

Additional keywords/tags

knowledgeagricultural extension