Building Collaborative Partnerships with Farming Systems Research and Extension

Building Collaborative Partnerships with Farming Systems Research and Extension

Summary

The project was designed to increase the sharing of knowledge, particularly farm-generated knowledge, of continuously improving farming systems in the context of community. The link between the farm and community is disappearing in many places, yet sustainable ecosystems require those connections to be made. By bringing together a diverse group of farming systems practitioners, a term which includes farmers, in a situation designed to build connections as well as share knowledge, we hope to contribute to the momentum building up for more integrated farm/community systems oriented toward long-term sustainability.

The major event was the planning and carrying out of a symposium, Linkages Among Farming Systems and Communities, November 5-8, 1995, which included a large number of farmers and extension educators as well as researchers. A number of networks and activities followed the symposium to continue the networking and increase sharing knowledge about continuously improving farming systems in the context of community. Based in part on the people and the content of symposium, including the farming-community tour, a video "Social Capital and Sustainability: The Community and Managing Change in Agriculture," was produced and distributed through sustainable farming organizations. A shortened version of the video has been produced for use at local meetings as the basis for discussion.

The symposium had several important sessions on women in agriculture. That work has fed into a number of North American and international efforts to recognize women for the actors they are. We used symposium resources that has expanded the networking began at the conference, resulting in a number of concrete projects and several project plans. As a result of the symposium, a group developed around farmer-generated knowledge. The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development, working with the University of Nebraska, developed a project on mechanisms to legitimate and share farmer knowledge funded by North Central Region SARE program. This has developed through working with regional sustainable agriculture organizations. Building on farmer-generated knowledge and the learning that takes place from working with people in the South, we brought Ricardo Salvador to Equador to work with the PVOs and local farmer groups there as research finished its first phase. This input made important changes in the SANREM CRSP, as well as formed the integration of community into Iowa-based work.

The 1997 Symposium took place in November in Oregon. Responding to the feedback from the 1995 Symposium, the structure was altered to be more participatory and interactive. That Symposium linked the Consortium for Sustainable Research and Education.

North Central Region SARE 1997 Annual Report.