32


COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • NOVEMBER 2017


Collaboration key to extension programming Services need to have impact, not just targets – otherwise, what’s the point?


by PETER MITHAM ABBOTSFORD – When the


regional districts of Kootenay Boundary, Central Kootenay and East Kootenay joined forces with the Columbia Basin Trust to launch the Kootenay Boundary Farm Advisors (KBFA) at the beginning of August, they illustrated the kind of transformation one US expert says farm extension needs to experience to remain relevant. Speaking at the Pacific


Agriculture Show in Abbotsford earlier this year, Danny Klinefelter, a professor and extension economist with AgriLife Extension at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, said many extension programs have focused on what works well, what works within budgets, and what fulfils political


mandates rather than what farmers need. “They do what’s worked


well but what’s politically correct, what’s politically expedient,” he said. “The trouble is, that stifles change and potential growth.” It can also lead to their


demise, because the overseers allocating budgets want to know what they’re getting for their money. Often, this can lead to measuring productivity by research programs, publications and other factors rather than actual value and relevance to producers. “My feeling is they’ve got


to make some significant changes if they’re going to remain relevant,” Klinefelter said.


This will hinge on a


rediscovery of extension’s role as a public service, rather than one that presents its findings


to other researchers and the bureaucrats who hold the purse strings. While extension work can accommodate the bureaucrats and the farmers, it needs to be clear about who comes first. “Our mission as extension,


originally, was to extend research out to the general public,” Klinefelter said. “We also need a shift in extension’s management focus to become strategic and entrepreneurial, and less about bureaucracy.” This is where the approach


taken in the Kootenays is illustrative. According to Klinefelter, when government wants funding to achieve certain objectives or meet certain targets, it risks being too narrowly focused. “If extension becomes dependent on state and provincial and local funding,


the program is going to become more parochial and myopic,” he said. “A lot of the solutions and ways to address local issues and problems requires being outside.” Staying focused on what’s going on outside the lab is key to KBFA’s approach, which has made its first priority speaking with local producers to find out what their needs are. A consultation undertaken by Keefer Ecological Services Ltd., the Cranbrook firm administering the three-year program, will set priorities over the winter with the aim of arranging support for local growers in spring 2018. In addition to collaboration


between organizations, Klinefelter also urges greater collaboration across borders, recognizing that farmers operate within a complex environment that’s greater


than any one jurisdiction. Partnerships such as the BC


Raspberry Council’s work with the Washington Red Raspberry Commission on research projects regarding shoot burning are a case in point. However, Klinefelter goes further, saying that


collaborations must support innovation that reflect a commitment to continuous learning and give their industries a competitive advantage. Ultimately, the payback on


extension work isn’t measured by what a program recoups but the resilience of the sector it serves. A program may hit all its program targets, but it’s missed the point if the results don’t impact anyone. “It’s as important to reach the people who count as to count the people you reach,” he said.


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at ways to enhance the efficacy of the bacteria so it can be more consistent in performance and comparable to chemical fungicides,” she says. “The possibility of developing our bacteria into a commercial product is something we are currently discussing with our collaborators. Over the next few months, we hope to determine if this is a viable candidate to develop into a commercial biological control product and, if it is, what are the next steps.” The current biological


control agent commercially available is sold as a freeze- dried product which is diluted with a specified volume of tap water. Wallace expects that their bacteria, if commercialized, would be prepared in a similar format. Wallace’s research was


supported by the Canadian Horticulture Council and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada and was published in the journal Postharvest Biology and Technology. Further support came from the BC Tree Fruits Co-operative and Agriculture Canada’s Summerland Research and Development Centre.


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