VIDEO MEDIATED SOCIAL NETWORKS: A FUTURE ADOPTION PATHWAY FOR THE AUSTRALIAN SUGAR INDUSTRY?

AGRICULTURAL research and development needs a more effective and lower-cost adoption pathway than traditional extension has been able to provide. While it is expected this will come from greater use of the internet, extension agents have been poorly equipped to make advances with the internet on their own. A lack of evidence in the literature of web sites for effective extension has also been a contributing factor. This study found that farmer-to-farmer vicarious learning styles duplicated in video clips were effective. The majority of farmers who participated in the study said they had identified one or more practices in the video clips that they planned to try out on their farms, accounting for 60 percent of responses. Of these, 32 percent had already adopted at least one of these practices within that first year. In addition, 77 percent were interested in finding and watching these video clips online. Thus, this paper recommends the internet be used to facilitate communication between farmers by using online video as a conduit for vicarious learning. In addition, DVDs and group video presentations are also recommended to support the different types of information seeking behaviour identified.