University News

Farmers in WA could benefit as a result of a symposium "Understanding Practice Change by Rural Landholders" to be held at The University of Western Australia next week.

Australian Research Council Federation Fellow Professor David Pannell, from UWA's Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy said one of the symposium's aims was to make relevant research understandable and useful to organisations servicing agriculture.

"There is a lot of research on what influences farmers to do what they do, but it is often under-utilised by organisations that need to understand it," he said. "We expect a diverse and highly engaged audience.

"This event follows a highly successful symposium on the same topic that we ran in Melbourne last year, attracting around 400 delegates from the public sector, regional natural resource management bodies, private consultants, media, agricultural input suppliers, universities, CSIRO and students. Our symposium at UWA will include several speakers from the original event, and a range of additional experts."

Some of the speakers and their topics are:

• Professor David Pannell, UWA: "Overview: Understanding and promoting adoption of new practices by rural landholders" and "Policy aspects of rural practice change"
• Research Assistant Professor Sally Marsh, UWA: "Using incentive payments to promote rural practice change"
• Frank D'Emden, Department of Agriculture and Food WA: "Adoption of conservation tillage"
• Karen Barroga, UWA: "Constraints on adoption of complex technologies"
• Perry Dolling, Department of Agriculture and Food WA: "Constraints to the widespread adoption of lucerne in Western Australia"
• Peter Sullivan, Avon Catchment Council, and speakers from South Coast NRM and Northern Agricultural Catchments Council: "Regional NRM bodies' experiences in pursuing farmer practice change"
• Michael Robertson (CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems) "Multiple methods to understand practice change"

WHAT:           Symposium: "Understanding Practice Change by Rural Landholders"

WHEN:           Wednesday, July 8, 2009, 8.30am to 5.00pm

WHERE:         University Club Auditorium, UWA
                  Nearest carpark is off Hackett Drive Entrance 1. 

For more information, or to register, visit the website: http://www.ruralpracticechange.org/content/wa-symposium