The #OFE2021 Pre-conference Webinar Series
In May 2021, the On-Farm Experimentation Community organised theopen access #OFE2021 Webinar Series, that discussed a range of key topics prepared by the Conference Organising Committee together with dedicated working groups.
Top: Dr Myrtille Lacoste, Dr Matthew McNee, Dr Nicolas Tremblay, Dr Osana Bonilla-Findji, A/Prof Louis Longchamps, Ms Claire Rhodes, Dr Anton Eitzinger, Prof Richard Tiffin, Dr Simone Van der Burg
Bottom: Dr Isabelle Piot-Lepetit, Prof Simon Cook, Dr Zelalem Lema, Dr Stephane Lemarié, Dr Véronique Bellon-Maurel, Dr Takashi Tanaka, Dr Medha Devare, Prof Leanne Wiseman, Dr Helen Hambly Odame, Dr Roger Sylvester-Bradley
Opening of the #OFE2021 pre-conference webinars
| Myrtille Lacoste Curtin University, Australia |
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The OFE2021 conference is inspired by a movement that could be of global significance:
farmers, researchers and other stakeholders are experimenting collaboratively on farms at meaningful management scales, as a means to drive change in
agriculture. This On-Farm Experimentation process, or “OFE”, takes different shapes and forms, but all initiatives share a number of key features:
• They occur on the farm and a t field scale
• They bring in participants who add value to an ongoing process of inquiry
• They focus on data, to develop insights AND to improve the inquiry process
• They emphasise farmer needs as a means to reveal paths to value for all
The farmer-centric philosophy of OFE does not conform precisely to top-down or bottom-up paradigms: OFE develops an additional pathway to create information and knowledge to those that currently exist. A process that might be thought of as a third way of creating value: anchored with farmers, and with scientists, but not only – and not either.
OFE offers a practical solution to the challenge of transitioning agri-food systems, by reframing questions, re-thinking relationships between farmers and scientists, and by opening new spaces for collaboration at the intersection of agricultural, social, and data sciences. OFE has risen incrementally, building on 200 years of experimental history and decades of participatory efforts. Contemporary acknowledgement of the potential for on-farm experimentation to drive change coincides with growing clarity about the need for:
• More inclusive research (because no one-size fits all)
• Open innovation that promotes fruitful exchanges
• Shared value propositions and new business models that align the varied interests of farmers, scientists and other stakeholders, around common grounds
Another striking change supporting the recent OFE momentum is the rise of digital technologies. The underlying motivation is two-fold. First, digital tools are powerful enablers of OFE, allowing to capture large amounts of information, scale processes to reach people, and share data and insights. Second, OFE could help test the relevance of digital technologies on farms with farmers.
And yet, OFE does not necessarily require digital technologies. In fact, it can be argued that the strongest enablers of OFE are people. This must be acknowledged as technologies have opportunity costs, in rare materials but also expertise. This conference must start to address these questions, for we must prioritise efforts to shape the future, rather than “work hard” and hope that will be enough to lead us where we need to be.
OFE is for everyone because it is evidence-driven. We know that solutions cannot solely be technological, but also must involve changes in culture, policy and governance – especially if we want to scale these solutions. Therefore, this conference addresses social and technical matters jointly. We need to ally different approaches, identify useful patterns, and share experiences and lessons to build momentum.
Theme 1: “People and processes”
Chair: Myrtille Lacoste – Curtin University, Australia
Co-moderator: Quentin Toffolini – INRAE, France
How can we ensure that digitally enabled On-Farm Experimentation avoids the classic “Technology Fallacy,” and instead centres transformation around people? Recent research from MIT demonstrated that “people are the real key to digital transformation” (Kane 2019). Change is as much about us and our organizations as it is about the technology. Change occurs when people change, transformation occurs when individual changes scale up through their networks and their organizations. The underlying change throughout is in knowledge and shared culture. This webinar will explore various examples of scalable change that apply to OFE, through lessons learned from thinkers and practitioners with experience in a range of institutional and business settings across the world. The webinar will focus on identifying interactions between digital technologies and these varied organizational environments that nurture (or impede) transformational change. Attention will be paid to pinpoint specific mechanisms supporting systemic goals of productivity, social and environmental sustainability, in both the Global North and the Global South.
| 1) Organising OFE while avoiding the “Technology Fallacy” Myrtille Lacoste – Curtin University, Australia |
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| 2) Managing the Interface - Falkland Islands and Australia Matthew McNee – Department of Agriculture, Falkland Islands Government |
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| 3) The GeoFarmer app: a modular platform for community based participation Anton Eitzinger and Osana Bonilla-Findji – CGIAR CCAFS, Alliance Bioversity, CIAT, Colombia |
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| 4) Farmer innovation tracking: exploring for scaling and changing Chloé Salembier – INRAE and FNCUMA, France |
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| 5) Farmer hybridising knowledge and technologies to develop new innovations: Timor-Leste Rob Williams – AI-Com and ACIAR, Timor-Leste |
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| 6) Enabling co-creation, inclusion and scaling from farmer engagement in Northern Benin Check Abdel Kader Baba – TMG Research, Germany |
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| 7) Multi-Party Innovation Ecosystem platforms, Ethiopia Zelalem Lema – University of New England, Australia |
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| 8) Capacity for OFE people and processes Helen Hambly Odame – University of Guelph and CGIAR-CIP Board, Canada |
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Theme 2: “Value creation”
Chair: Simon Cook – Murdoch University, Australia
Co-moderator: Isabelle Lepiot-Petit – INRAE, France
“Farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation”, or “OFE”, is a shared, self-sustaining process of change. Value is essential to its development and success. With the aim of enhancing interest, trust and investment in OFE, this webinar will ask: How is value created? How is value shared? Who gains from OFE? How can science and technology improve OFE processes? Experience suggests that farmers need little persuasion to engage; on-farm experimentation is a process they already do and understand. But to scale up, we need to recognize how OFE creates value for varied stakeholders, how value is shared, and how scientific disciplines can contribute. In addition to general insights, we need to explain impact pathways for OFE which contrast markedly with those of conventional research. Clarity on the value propositions offered by OFE will help bridge diverse views from around the world. This webinar will bring together specialists from agronomy, agro-economics and social sciences to clarify and explain the value of OFE. It will also set the scene for the next webinars on People and Processes, Data and Analytics, and Policy Linkages.
| 1) Creating and sharing value through On-Farm Experimentation Simon Cook – Murdoch University, Australia |
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| 2) How OFEs create value: The ‘rules’ of the game Jess Lowenberg de Boer – Harper Adams University, UK |
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| 3) How biology adds value to OFE Roger Sylvester-Bradley – ADAS, UK |
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| 4) Social and organisational dimensions of OFE Julie Ingram – University of Gloucestershire, UK |
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| 5) The Value of farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation in smallholder farming Christian Witt – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, US Sieglinde Snapp – Michigan State University, US |
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| 6) From commercialization to realization: empowering rather than hindering farmers through data Terry Griffin – Kansas State University, US |
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| 7) Reflections and observations Tom McMillan – Royal Agricultural University, UK |
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Theme 3: “Data and analytics”
Chair: Nicolas Tremblay – ISPA OFE-C and AAAC, Canada
Co-moderator: Louis Longchamps – Cornell University, US
How should we rethink the planning and analysis of on-farm experiments with farmers’ interests in mind? How should we organize and curate data and metadata for this purpose? Farmer-centric experimentation has great potential to improve the design and adoption of better farm management practices. All stakeholders, including farmers, commercial product and service providers, scientists and policy makers, must seize this opportunity to improve farm practices in terms of precision, efficiency and impact. From smallholders to broadacre farmers, from local to greater scales, well-targeted analytics can be deployed to exploit the valuable data already collected on the farm. This webinar will feature five presentations across two axes: 1) analytics at the level of a single farm, group of farms, or big data; and 2) practices to make data and metadata effective, with special attention to agronomic data. Participants will be able to contribute to a summary document presenting key issues and recommendations.
| 1) From analytics to metadata Nicolas Tremblay – ISPA OFE-C and AAAC, Canada |
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| 2) Rethinking experimental designs and data analysis of On-Farm Experimentation Takashi Tanaka – Gifu University, Japan |
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| 3) Data agglomeration among farmers: why and how? David Makowski – INRAE, France |
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| 4) Opportunities and challenges for translational research from Big Data Richard Tiffin – Agrimetrics, UK |
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| 5) The need and resources for FAIR data: “Which data to collect and why” Gerrit Hoogenboom – University of Florida, US |
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| 6) Enabling digital transformation of agriculture by overcoming the agriculture Tower of Babel Medha Devare – CGIAR, France Cheryl Porter – University of Florida, US |
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Theme 4: “Policy Linkages”
Chair: Stéphane Lemarié – INRAE, France
Co-moderator: Véronique Bellon-Maurel – INRAE, France
Policy, legislation and investments are necessary to support transformation through OFE which is, essentially, a local process that engages farmers and others around specific changes on the farm. Currently, initiatives around OFE are happening in spite of poorly aligned institutional structures and incentives within the agricultural sciences, with funding mechanisms, career paths and norms favouring traditional experimentation. Harnessing the transformational potential of OFE for agricultural sciences and innovation requires more strategic institutional alignment. To scale up, OFE will need nurturing policy, well-designed legislation and secure investment. This webinar will present issues and proposals relevant to farmer-centric On-Farm Experimentation regarding public policies in relation to agricultural and open innovation systems, investment and data and innovation governance.
| 1) Reflections from the EU Policy Lab Maciej Krzysztofowicz – JRC, European Union |
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| 2) Innovation policy and the sustainability transition Gianluca Brunori – University of Pisa, Italy |
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| 3) Financing the innovation Agnès Maître – AFD, France |
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| 4) Investing in smallholder-led approaches to OFE Claire Rhodes – Producers Direct, UK |
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| 5) OFE and ag data governance: legal dimensions Leanne Wiseman – Griffith University, Australia |
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| 6) OFE and trust in data sharing Simone Van der Burg – WUR, The Netherlands |
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| 7) Wrap up: lessons learned and open questions Derek Byerlee – Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA |
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The recordings from ISPA are available below:
The first webinar titled Value creation addressed how creating value is essential to OFE success to ensure a self-sustaining process of change.
The second webinar on People and processes dealt with the social organisation of OFE and how to ensure that digitally-enabled On-Farm Experimentation avoids the classic “Technology Fallacy,” and instead centres transformation around people.
The third webinar focused on Data and analytics, specifically how to organize and curate data and metadata for the purpose of rethinking the planning and analysis of on-farm experiments with farmers’ interests in mind, as farmer-centric experimentation has great potential to improve the design and adoption of better farm management practices.
The last webinar on Policy linkages investigated how policies, legislation and investments can support an efficient long-term transformation that engages farmers and others around collaborative research and innovation.
These webinars were organised by the #OFE2021 Organising Committee, the ISPA OFE-C (On-Farm Experimentation Community of the International Society of Precision Agriculture) and the INRAE-#DigitAg with the support of OECD's Co-operative Research Programme: Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems, Agropolis Foundation, #DigitAg, the Région Occitanie, Montpellier University of Excellence, Occitanum, Agreenium, RMT Modelia and RMT NAEXUS INRAE (départements MathNum & AgroEcosystem).
