Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

Engaging farmers in online forums

Online forums are an effective way of engaging farmers. Google groups for example enables members to create and participate in online forums and email-based groups for specialist topics. Farmers learn successfully by engaging with each other and completing the learning journey together. Online forums are an excellent place for farmers to discuss ideas and concepts before putting them into practice. The forum platform means that they can then report their findings, challenges, and practical alterations, reflecting the learning cycle. The collective knowledge generated by the forum offers great value. When developing an online platform for end-users:

• Ensure target farmers see the value in investing time online.

• Forums can either be paid or open access. The benefits of paid forums mean that engagement rules can be set, ensuring a respectful group etiquette.

• When setting up the forum agree on communication ‘rules’ and invest in developing a sharing culture. Be aware that farmers may feel vulnerable communicating their ideas online so take measures to encourage their participation.

• Online forums can generate several comments a day with forums creating thousands of threads. Provide the ability to set email preferences so that engagement can be tailored to suit members.

• Categorized threads can then be used for targeted knowledge exchange outputs.

Whilst barriers exist, online forums are a useful platform to generate self-motivated farmer engagement as well as providing a reservoir of knowledge for practitioners to analyse for further learning content, which can be used to communicate to ‘hard to reach’ farmers.

See 4D4F https://4d4f.eu/forum and DISARM Community of Practice https://www.facebook.com/groups/242076006728832/

Source Project
EURAKNOS
Ongoing | 2019-2021
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
Belgium
Project details

Project Keywords