Which farmers participate when?

This report addresses the Cooperative Venture for Capacity Building's (CVCB's) need to develop a better understanding of Australian farmers' participation in capacity building activities and to identify sources of data on participation rates, focusing mainly on the last three years. It attempts to identify existing baseline information on participation by Australian farmers as a whole, and by agricultural industry, type of capacity building activity, region, and by socio-demographic factors (farmer age, gender, educational level and income). In this study, capacity building refers to processes aimed at improving the skills, knowledge and abilities of farmers to conduct their farming operations, whether in economic terms (e.g. improving financial performance, reducing debt), in social terms (e.g. improving satisfaction with farming as a lifestyle, contributing to development of rural communities), or in environmental terms (e.g. improving the ecological sustainability of the farming operation, improving the stock of natural capital or the state of the natural resource base). In this light, the processes of interest could include ones ranging from the formal to the informal; and cover a varied set of topics from general educational courses with no specific vocational focus to highly specific training activities focused on developing particular skills needed in farm businesses. Key findings include: Australia's farmers tend to have low levels of formal education qualifications when compared with both the whole population, and with other occupational groups or industry sectors; current farmers had a strong preference for informal capacity building activities, particularly workshops or short courses, demonstration sites or field days, and to a lesser extent, conferences; older farmers consistently participated in capacity building activities to a lesser extent than younger ones, with participation tending to be highest in the 25-34 year age group and declining consistently thereafter. One of the most consistent findings of this and related studies was that there is a positive relationship between levels of formal educational attainments and participation in a wide range of capacity building activities. In conclusion, the report examines the implications of the findings for capacity building activities, and provides recommendations to the CVCB and its members to improve farmers' participation.

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