Successful knowledge dissemination: targeting the key sources used by the agricultural community
Communication and dissemination strategies are critical for ensuring effective knowledge transfer to the agricultural community as well as being mandatory by the European Commission for Horizon 2020 projects. A key factor for successful knowledge transfer is understanding the preferences and habits of the agricultural community in how they search for and obtain new knowledge.
The end users of the outputs of Horizon 2020 projects use a range of sources to obtain knowledge, from formal to informal. Formal sources are usually easy to consult but often require effort of the user to apply to practice, whilst informal sources allow interactivity with the source of the knowledge, but may not be useful if things subsequently go wrong and additional help is needed.
Formal sources include: The internet – most commonly used is the google search engine to then link with more specialist websites; Printed texts such as books and magazines, and; Agricultural TV, popular in countries such as Bulgaria but not common in other areas.
When searching for information online users commonly look for text, which is more popular than images, video and audio.
Slightly less formal sources include meetings and events (study trips, demonstrations), plus training and seminars.
Informal sources include: Friends, family and colleagues; Advisors / technicians, and; Communication / media tools (e.g. Whatsapp and Facebook) and online communities.
The value of informal sources of information should not be underestimated, especially when farmers are facing urgent problems to solve. Also keep in mind that formal sources act as important mechanisms to ensuring that new and relevant information can be distributed by the more informal channels.
Eureka
Completed | 2020-2022
- Main funding source
- Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
- Geographical location
- Belgium
Project Keywords
- Aquaculture
- Arable crops
- Organic farming
- Agro-ecology
- Crop rotation/crop diversification/dual-purpose or mixed cropping
- Animal husbandry
- Animal welfare
- Biodiversity and nature
- Competitiveness/new business models
- Farm diversification
- Equipment and machinery
- Forestry
- Pest/disease control in plants
- Pest/disease control in animals
- Fodder and feed
- Outdoor horticulture and woody crops (incl. viticulture, olives, fruit, ornamentals)
- Greenhouse crops
- Soil