LINKING COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TO AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE NETWORKS
Mark Lubell, PhD, University of California, Davis
Introduction Cooperative Extension professionals are increasingly using information and communication technology (ICT) to communicate knowledge to their clientele. ICT includes websites, blogs, social media, and mobile decision-support applications. Cooperative Extension clientele are also using ICT: more and more farmers are using computers every year, and many of them have social media accounts. There is even some anecdotal evidence of an “ Extension gap,” 1 where Cooperative Extension clientele like farmers are using computers and social media at higher rates than Cooperative Extension professionals. Given this increasing usage, Extension professionals should think about how ICT functions in the context of the agricultural knowledge networks in which they work, and how to most effectively use ICT for outreach and education. This essay discusses how ICT can be used to accelerate the spread of knowledge through agricultural systems, and support innovation. Cooperative Extension professionals are crucial nodes in agricultural knowledge networks. What are agricultural knowledge networks are composed of the set of organizations and individuals (nodes) involved with agriculture and natural resources within some particular community context, for example a county. These nodes are connected by relationships such as information sharing, communication, or collaboration-- these are the “edges” in the network. The overall network consists of the nodes, plus the number and distribution of edges. Agricultural knowledge networks operate at multiple levels of geographic scale (e.g.; county-level, versus state-level) with potential cross-level relationships. Agricultural knowledge networks may also be identified for different types of communities of practice, for example around “tomato production” or “social med ia in Extension and outreach.” Background Modern agricultural knowledge networks look much different than those that existed in the early 1900s during the establishment of land-grant universities and Cooperative Extension systems. During the early history of Cooperative Extension, university researchers and county Cooperative Extension agents were often the most central nodes distribution expertise to farmers and agricultural organizations, many of which were just starting to learn about agriculture and associated technology. But modern agricultural networks are far more diversified, including universities, Cooperative Extension professionals, non-governmental agencies, governmental agencies at multiple levels, consultants, special districts, producer groups, and others. The networks are diverse even within some farm operations, where management is a function of decisions made by farm owners, professional managers, labor managers, pest control advisors, irrigation specialists, and other specialized positions. Agricultural knowledge and data of different types is distributed throughout these networks. Cooperative Extension professionals remain important sources of expertise in most of these networks, but they do not have a monopoly on knowledge. As a result, the job of the Cooperative Extension professional is not just to broadcast knowledge, but also coordinating and assembling the knowledge that is available throughout the network. If knowledge networks are like orchestras, Extension professionals are not just the first violin, but must also play the role of conductor to help all the actors work together and share knowledge. Cooperative Extension professionals need to be aware of how farmers and other actors learn and make decisions in the context of agricultural knowledge networks. Our previous work has outlined (see Figure 1 below) a theoretical framework for agricultural knowledge networks, which identifies three learning pathways: experiential, technical, and social. 2 Experiential is what farmers have always done: manage their farm with a particular set of strategies, observe the outcome, adjust for next year. Technical is what traditional Cooperative Extension programs are built on--set up some type of programs that teach farmers about new technology and knowledge, deliver it
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