Beyond the borders
How our extension team beat lockdowns and border closures to keep on engaging - and what they ' re planning next for growers .
GETTING out to meet with growers and stakeholders to share the latest industry knowledge and identify emerging issues is one of the main aims of the Almond Board of Australia ’ s Industry Development Team . But what happens when border restrictions and lockdowns come into play ? The COVID-19 pandemic presented some unique challenges for the team over the past two years in running the Almond Industry Extension and Innovation Program . Just like others in the industry , the team has had to adapt – and while it ’ s been a learning curve , it ’ s also presented new ways to improve extension work into the future . Industry Development Manager Deidre Jaensch took up her role with the ABA in October 2019 . Living in Mildura , Victoria , means she ’ s spent over half her time with the ABA in lockdown . “ Travel restrictions and isolation rules created a huge barrier to the ABA engagement activities that industry had traditionally relied on such as field days , farm visits and ABA annual conferences ,” she said . “ Many farms had implemented a ‘ no visitor ’ policy and tightly controlled processes to receive goods and services which minimised human contact . " This meant we had to think more creatively about how to maintain
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Travel restrictions and isolation rules created a huge barrier to the ABA engagement activities that industry had traditionally relied on such as field days , farm visits and ABA annual conferences ...
the connection with industry stakeholders as well as interstate work colleagues .” The on-again , off-again nature of border closures also made it hard to forward plan , and several planned field days had to be cancelled last minute due to snap border closures . The extension program plays a key role in bringing new technologies and innovation to industry , as well as sharing growers experience and knowledge about ways to best manage on-farm production and biosecurity risks to meet marketing requirements and consumer expectations . Priorities for extension topics is guided by the ABA Production Committee and delivered through the Almond Industry Innovation and Adoption project , funded through Hort Innovation Almond research and development levy . In the past , traditional engagement included events such as field days and workshops , grower inquiries and farm visits , and presentations to industry .
These events are also a valuable way for the team to identify emerging issues within the industry and ways the ABA might be able to assist . When COVID-19 hit , the team had to rethink its approach and find new ways to maintain that connection with growers . “ Luckily online webinars were available and quickly took the place of traditional field days enabling us to continue to provide project updates and share grower experiences ,” Ms Jaensch said . “ Over the past 18 months we ’ ve held 11 webinars and three online workshops and we ’ ve increased our videoing abilities which has been handy to capture grower interviews which were the highlight of the ABA webinars . “ The webinar online registration process meant we could ask growers what they are observing on-farm and what challenged them about each of the topics so we can tailor future extension
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10 In A Nutshell - Autumn 2022 Vol 23 Issue 1