Abstract
The Australian horticultural research, development and extension environment can be described as complex, diverse and dynamic, making a common approach to extension difficult. Over the 10 years of the HRDC, policy and practices for the extension of outcomes from R&D projects has evolved but currently comprise a project specific extension strategy and a range of other supporting extension activities. There are a number of inherent problems with the current extension model, but evaluations to date show that effective adoption of R&D outcomes has been occurring. There is much room for improvement and changes in horticultural extension policy, and practices are being driven by a range of factors including greater industry ownership of R, D&E, increased accountability, economic pressures, globalisation and systems approaches to industry development. In the future, industry development is more likely to be based on an information management approach rather than an R&D driven approach. Alternative providers of extension services (including industry) and the use of new technologies will increase, investment in extension R&D and training will be much greater, international collaboration will become more important and information brokers will play an important role in horticultural extension.
Introduction
The Horticultural Research and Development Corporation (HRDC) has been in existence for a little over 10 years. It was established by the Federal Government to improve the efficiency and competitiveness of Australian horticulture through research and development in partnership with industry and the R&D community. The charter of HRDC focuses strongly on the adoption and application of knowledge in the fields of science, technology, marketing and economics. Thus extension is an integral part of HRDC and industry planning and activities. This paper examines a number of elements of the horticultural R&D environment, discusses current Corporation extension policy, practices and their efficiency and effectiveness. It highlights some major drivers for change in horticultural extension and suggests some future changes to extension practices in this industry.
The Horticultural R&D Environment
Australia’s horticultural research, development and extension (R, D&E) environment can best be described as complex, diverse and dynamic.
The Australian Horticultural Industry consists of over 40 individual industries (or commodities) with a combined farm gate value of $ 5.5 billion (Figure 1).
Figure 1. Horticultural GVP/Farmgate Value ($m) 1997 for major industries.
Currently fifteen of these industries pay an R&D levy that is matched by the Federal Government through HRDC for Research Development and Extension (figure 2).
Figure 2. 1999/00 horticultural gross levy receipts.
These industries range in:
size (GDP, number of growers and area)
complexity
maturity (apples and pears cf. mango)
size of R&D budget ( vegetables cf. chestnuts)
organisational complexity and skills base (citrus cf. nashi)
focus (production or whole of chain, export or domestic, national or state-based).
Figure 3. 2000/01 program by key result area ($million)
An additional 23 or so industries fund R, D&E through voluntary contributions (VC) which are also matched by the Federal Government through HRDC. Some of these so-called VC industries are large and well organised (e.g. banana, pyrethrum) whilst others are small, often with one-off projects. Sectors of the horticultural industry other than production (e.g. processing companies) can and do also take advantage of the VC funding mechanism. In fact, VC funded projects are 55% of HRDC’s current R, D&E budget of $34 million.
The $34 million budget sounds large until it is divided amongst the 40 individual horticultural commodities. HRDC is currently funding 600 projects across five key result areas (figure 3) with an average project value of $100,000 and an average project life of 3 years.
In addition, most horticultural commodity production sectors
are traditional and very conservative
have a high degree of ownership by growers
have a regional or state focus
have a production focus
consider projects rather than programs
have a maximum 3 – 5 year outlook rather than 10 – 15 years plus, and
have part-time executive committees with a regular turnover.
Most projects have three or four stakeholders (eg Federal Government, HRDC, Industry, Service Provider), each with different expectations, objectives and political agendas. Currently there are 378 service providers, although state departments of agriculture are still the major service providers in horticultural R&D (figure 4).
Figure 4. 2000/01 program by R&D provider ($million)
Current HRDC Extension Policy and Practices
The current HRDC policy requires all projects to have an industry extension strategy. This has proven to be evolutionary over the life of the Corporation. Currently applicants are asked to provide details of the target audience, strategy for adoption, how the extension outcomes will be evaluated and to detail the critical success factors. Whilst the HRDC actively seeks this information (and it is often a reason for resubmission of applications), the responsibility for planning, implementation and evaluation is left to the service provider. Some industries become actively involved in the extension of the outcomes of these R&D projects through their industry development officers, R&D committees or industry project champions. However, this is often not the case, and highlights some inherent problems with this model such as:
The projects are often led by scientists with little or no input in the planning phase from extension specialists
Extension planning often takes on a secondary status to the science
Money is allocated to the R&D parts of the project with often inadequate or no funds allocated to R&D
Technical specialists are not always the best people to plan or implement the extension phase
With some projects, the technical staff have little interest in the extension of outcomes and thus the extension strategies are inadequate or inappropriate
Extension of R&D outcomes often takes much longer than the life of the project and there are no plans for, or funding to continue this
There is, in some cases inadequate preliminary work carried out to see if solutions are available from other countries, other commodities or other industries
Evaluation is carried out in-house rather than by independent sources.
Whilst it is true that there are many problems with the current model, there is also some good extension work that has been applied by some of the service providers. Three examples of excellent initiatives are listed below.
Agriculture Victoria projects which utilise the "Research to Practice" adult learning model developed internally by that agency
the "Expert Systems" approach used by Queensland DPI which integrated information from a number of projects to develop systems approaches (eg Avoman, "Agrilink" series)
the Agriculture Victoria "Integrated Fruit Production" model in apples and pears which integrates R&D carried out over many years into a systems approach to fruit production.
In addition to project extension strategies, the Corporation funds the following extension-related activities.
Industry Development Officers (IDOs) and Industry Development Managers (IDMs)
The HRDC funds over 40 IDOs and IDMs in horticultural industries with the primary role of these positions being cross-industry extension and communication. HRDC has tended to manage these IDOs and IDMs as R&D projects with variable results. In many cases, they interact well with industry and service providers and perform a vital component of the extension strategy for that industry. In some cases, however, IDOs and IDMs have taken on executive officer status and add little value to the extension and technology adoption strategy.
Newsletters and Publications
HRDC funds a large number of newsletters and publications which for some industries, are the most cost effective way of reaching the national industry. Evaluations to date have shown that these are effective and highly valued by industry.
Expert Systems
Grower Groups (including best-practice groups) (e.g. Citgroups, Apple and Pear Best-practice Groups)
Communication Planning
HRDC policy now encourages all major industries to have a structured communication plan. These are generally prepared by consultants who consult widely with industry. In future, it will be expected that projects seeking support for IDOs, newsletters and other forms of extension will be developed on the basis of a formal industry communications plan.
Extension Projects (Integrated Fruit Production in apples and pears)
Study Tours and Travel
Training and Development
Workshops and Conferences
A general feature of current horticultural extension practices is that they are stand-alone, project-focussed and do not develop a systems approach to industry development and extension. Given, the problems and inadequacies of the current policies and practices it is now pertinent to question how effective and efficient has adoption of the outcomes from horticultural R&D been to date.
The Effectiveness and Efficiency of Current Practices – Two Case Studies
The HRDC is continuing to carry out adoption and benefit/cost analysis studies on areas of R&D work such as integrated pest management, IDOs, production and study tours and travel. Two recent studies will be used here as case studies; one on the effectiveness of integrated pest management (IPM) in fresh and processing tomatoes and one on IPM in apples and pears. Both of these studies were carried out in response to concern by industry and the HRDC Board regarding expenditure on R&D in this area. IPM is comprised of a number of discreet and interrelated projects and work in this are has been continuing since the commencement of the Corporation. These two studies had