Access to drought information and technical support A one-stop shop for drought information. Improve farmer and community access to and knowledge of the full range of drought resilience, management, and support opportunities and initiatives. This includes wellbeing initiatives, family and community support services, community engagement initiatives, financial support, and technical support.
Provision of technical support and information directly to growers relating to farm management and operations that increase resilience to drought.
This project is supported by the SA Grains Industry Trust.
Project description:
The objective of Southern Soils Connect was to develop a ‘one-stop-shop’ for drought information. The initiative sought to foster a collaboration by bringing together a range of recent and current soils related research and extension projects to an on-line meeting point. Further, a clear aim of the project was to apply innovative approaches to how information and knowledge is managed, accessed and presented. This user-friendly approach underscores the background to this project, which recognises that information saturation can be overwhelming and that effort is required to understand our farming communities so that information can be tailored to meet their needs. The aim of Southern Soil Connect, therefore, is not just about a place for information but connecting that information to a community of practice.
Key achievements and results:
Soil Connect is a website that brings together a range of recent and current soils related research and extension project initiatives to the one on-line “meeting” point. It focuses on low rainfall farming environments, where climate and soil variability create key system vulnerabilities and require ongoing management attention and refinement to sustain health and retain productivity.
The project applies innovative approaches to how information and knowledge is managed, accessed and presented. Two animated characters have been developed to bring life to and summarise detailed subject matter. Charlie Cabon and Sandy Grain bring an approachable face to soil management, in low rainfall environments, and allow the audience to dig (pun intended) further where more information is required. Southern Soil Connect recognises that applied research is part of a continuous improvement process that requires an intentional approach to communication. While effort is often made to create pages on websites to act as a public record of the work undertaken on particular projects, there is an ongoing need to maintain the currency of information available; particularly as new projects build on the foundations of old projects.
In the same way that life on a farm doesn’t remain static, information needs to updated and presented to consider the context of changing circumstances, what is new, and how existing knowledge can be adapted and applied. While a website on its own cannot do this, and resource constraints often mean that access to expert information on an individual basis is out of reach, there is merit in using digital platforms to extend the boundaries of community. To this end, the goal of Southern Soil Connect is to provide a place where information on soil management can be gathered and regularly updated with the clear intent of supporting active farming communities.
A focus of the Southern Soil Connect project has been to build the architecture of the website; considering how to categorise information and develop means for interaction across those topics. This has meant that the process of populating pages with information has been delayed. Priority has however been given to uploading information on recent Future Drought Fund projects such as those targeting resilient soils, saline land and robust ground cover. Soil carbon has also been identified as an area that has particular challenges for low rainfall environments and where focus will be required to understand the opportunities that exist.
The task of populating, maintaining and updating the site will be significant but one that can’t and shouldn’t be ignored. The benefit of building relationships with active farming communities (a core aspect behind the existence of farming system groups), building confidence in digital engagement and streamlining communications are crucial to future success of Australian agriculture.
Soils Connect has now been established as a digital platform with personality – see Charlie Carbon and Sandy Grain above – that encourages users to present information in a reader friendly format, links research to practice, and builds community. The community focus brings purpose and meaning to the work of our agriculture research and development sector. Our farming systems are underpinned by the care and capability of the people who work in them; building capability requires both an understanding of the people, their interaction with the environment and the environment itself.
To support the development of a ‘community of practice’ the Southern Soils Connect website has been built with both project managers and active farming communities in-mind. There is opportunity for projects to be promoted, questions to be directed to experts, and discussion forums to be accessed through interaction with the Facebook page. For more information on this project, please visit Mallee Sustainable Farming.