NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the
Advice on Publications Available.The great diversity in the nursery industry in terms of location, species, media used, watering, fertilising etc means that public sector research will rarely be able to meet the specific research needs of the industry. An initiative from Dr Mal Hunter, Horticulture Centre Coordinator, Redlands Research Station, Queensland Department of Primary Industries, Cleveland has trialed a model process by which individual producers can undertake their own research.
Initially, a questionnaire was circulated to gauge the level of interest among producers in the concept of doing their own research. From the feedback, a group of fifteen nursery operators was invited to attend a workshop which was held at the Horticulture Centre, Cleveland on 17 November, 1994.
The workshop commenced with a group introduction, a period of sharing of industry background amongst the participants, an introduction to the concept of DYOR and an outline of a demonstration experiment which had been previously designed and carried out, with the participants collecting the final harvest data.
The participants then participated in a session on experimental design and statistics, discussion about the demonstration experiment to which they had contributed, and were introduced to the sourcing of information and its use in the planning of research.
The workshop was completed by sessions in which individual producer's problems were identified, the most appropriate research was determined in order to solve these problems and the participants provided feedback on their experiences through the workshop.
Subsequently, group facilitators visited each participant and assisted in designing an experiment to answer a specific problem identified by the producer. Experiments were conducted on water recycling, irrigation management, nutrition management, water relations of media, disease control, pot insulation and germination.
A second workshop, held in July, 1995 reported the findings of the experiments, as carried out by the participants and analysed by the qualified facilitators. Future workshops along these lines will be augmented by a teaching manual and other aids to assist in identifying producers' problems, designing experiments (with assistance from qualified facilitators), carrying out experiments, collecting data, analysis and interpretation (with assistance).
With the need for public research instrumentalities to concentrate on generic research, and problems having a wide application within the industry, important problems of relevance to small and emerging industries will not be addressed. DYOR offers a process by which these specific problems can be researched and resolved.
Because of the lack of ownership of problems in the current method of carrying out research, adoption is often slow. The participatory nature of DYOR means that the producer not only identifies the problem but owns the solution when it appears.
The manner in which the initial and follow-up workshops are run also provides an atmosphere within which producers feel they can, to some extent, share the difficulties they face in the industry. As well, they can challenge conventional wisdom which may be generic and not directly applicable to the circumstances of their individual enterprises. Cost/benefit analyses of components of their operations also can assist in identifying problems not otherwise evident.
The DYOR project is funded by the Horticultural Research and Development Corporation as Project NY404, entitled 'Improving in-house research capacity of the nursery industry'.
Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter
Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email:
r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au[
New Crops Home Page] [New Crops Program] [Australian New Crops Newsletter] [New Crops Publications] [Order Form] [People] [Crop Profiles] [Other Resources]originally created by:
GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF