Free Training for Farm Advisors

Three training modules for farm advisors are being launched today by Our Land and Water.

This free training has been developed to support rural professionals in the work they do with farmers. They build capability in identifying the most effective mitigation actions for farm environment plans, communicating effectively, and helping farm businesses make decisions around land-use diversification.

While they were designed for farm advisors and tertiary educators and their students, we think the learning modules will also be useful for all those working to support change in the primary sector.

The training modules provide a pathway through tools and resources developed throughout the eight years of research funded by Our Land and Water. They introduce tools that may be helpful and show how to use them.

All three modules can be accessed from ourlandandwater.nz/learn.

Each module can be completed in 60–90 minutes, with plenty of additional reading material provided as optional ‘deep dives’.

Management Practices to Improve Water Quality

The Management Practices to Improve Water Quality kōwae (learning module) will help you support farmers in creating cost-effective freshwater environment plans using science from Our Land and Water. You will learn:

• How to identify actions to mitigate water quality issues relevant to a catchment context
• How to access and interpret information and resources from Our Land and Water
• How to determine a range of suitable and cost-effective actions, their co-benefits and trade-offs
• The limits of the science and data and what is appropriate to use at the farm scale

This module synthesises research from eight research programmes and three Rural Professionals Fund projects.

Approximately 1 hour 30 mins to complete (+ 4 – 6 hours of optional readings)

Communicating Effectively with Farmers

The Communicating Effectively with Farmers kōwae (learning module) will help you learn new approaches to communicating effectively with your clients and the rural community, using social science research from Our Land and Water. You will learn:

• How to use effective strategies to overcome barriers to communicating with the rural community  
• How social science can help us to understand why people think the way they do
• How information you give to a farmer might interact with information and signals from other sources 

This module synthesises research from four research programmes, four Rural Professionals Fund projects, and an Our Land and Water-funded report and Master’s thesis.

Approximately 1 hour to complete (+ 4 – 6 hours of optional readings)

Tools for Making Land Use Change Decisions

Work through the activities in the Tools for Making Land Use Change Decisions kōwae (course) to learn how to help farm businesses to make decisions about land use diversification. You will learn:

• What land-use diversification is – its benefits, consequences, and the choices that need to be made when considering it
• How to involve a broader group with land use diversification
• The different support and advice available and when to bring them in
• How to help farmers and catchment groups with decision making
• The tools you can use to support change, and how to use them

This module synthesises research from 20 projects: 12 research programmes, five Rural Professionals Fund projects, and two events.

Approximately 1 hour 15 mins to complete (+ 4 – 6 hours of optional readings)

Please share these resources!

These learning modules bring together eight years of research from Our Land and Water. To do that meant launching them at the end of our funded period. We are relying on word-of-mouth to spread the use of these resources, so if you find them valuable, please do share them with others who will get value from them.