Key Points
- Soil management innovations must be created and applied with recognition of the complex social and cultural systems in which they will function to have lasting impact.
- ‘Adoptability’ of innovations relates to characteristics of:
- the innovation itself
- the producer and their social and cultural environment
- the knowledge and power relations that frame how the innovation is developed and promoted.
- Each of these characteristics can be considered as criteria that, if addressed or understood, lead to an increased chance of the innovation being adopted.
- A simple table of criteria is provided to assist soil and agricultural researchers develop innovations that will be adopted and have impact.
Our Research
Much research and development effort is directed towards innovative tools, technologies and practices for improved soil stewardship and performance. Despite their manifold benefits, often these innovations are not embraced by farmers – they are not ‘adopted’.
Aspects of adoption and adoptability were considered as part of a larger social scoping study undertaken in 2018. This involved undertaking a desktop review of the current published understanding of adoption and adoptability. Thematic analysis of the reviewed material enabled the construction of a table, reproduced in this Fact Sheet, which focuses on the key drivers and influences on adoption of a soil- related innovation, and on the criteria that need to be met for an innovation or practice to be adoptable.
The Challenge
For innovative approaches, practices, tools and technologies to be adopted, the innovations must be developed and used with an understanding of the dynamic, complex social and cultural systems of which they are part. Good science is necessary, but not sufficient, for strong uptake of innovations. Scientists have little information to help them understand the other aspects that also need to be considered.
The Opportunity
The Soil CRC provides the opportunity for soil scientists to work with social scientists and farmers, enabling a broad approach to developing innovations with increased probabilities of adoption.
Research Findings
Three broad approaches to adoption were identified as starting points for the analysis of adoption and adoptability. The most traditional ‘top-down’ approach positions the innovations developed by scientists as something developed in isolation, then promoted and eventually adopted by producers. The ‘bottom- up’ approach invites people involved in research, development and extension to explore the lives and worlds of the intended ‘end-users’, and shape their research to the needs of those end users.
The ‘co-production’ model moves to embed the ideas of technological and practice change within broader and longer contexts. When aspects of these approaches are considered together they highlight a number of conditions or criteria that must be met for an innovation, practice or set of practices to be adoptable.
Taking these criteria into account is crucial for researchers and extension professionals if they are to understand adoptability and adoption of technologies and/or practices for improving soil performance.
The table of conditions and criteria for adoption and adoptability is presented as a framework to guide thinking about specific innovations as they are being developed and promoted. It should be taken as a prompt for reflection and action, rather than as a definitive set of rules.
