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Issue 33 |
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Copyright |
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Birchip Cropping Group: Farmer-driven research success What to do when you’re an Australian farmer who wants crop research and development that applies to your farm, and there isn’t any? You get together with other farmers in the area who feel the same way and do it yourself. In 1993, about 10 farmers in Victoria, northwest of Melbourne, established the Birchip Cropping Group to conduct farmer-driven agronomic research specific to their area. The Group started and continues to operate on the premise that if rural communities are to survive, they need to attract industry, government and educational institutions to their region. The BCG’s mission is to improve profitability and long term viability of area communities through research, demonstration and exchange of ideas among farmers and industry groups. Its focus is to investigate critical success factors that ensure sustainable and profitable crop production systems. The group’s success is far exceeding initial expectations, with membership that has grown to 500 across four states, a staff of six and an annual budget of over $400,000 (U.S.) The Birchip Cropping Group is funded by membership fees, industry sponsorships, commissioned research projects from commercial companies and other research and development corporations, primarily the Grains Research and Development Corporation, which is supported by producers and Australia’s government. The Group has taken the lead in conducting its own research, with farmer ownership of results as the key benefit. This has attracted collaboration from government and industry that has expanded the work being done locally. The value of agronomic research conducted across the region by the group and its various collaborators exceeds $1.3 million (U.S.) annually, up from only $30,000 (U.S.) in 1992. One of the BCG’s notable successes in initiating infrastructure has been the decision to build a research facility in Birchip, population 800. Crop trials are conducted on three main sites, which total about 40 acres. Research information conducted by the BCG is freely distributed and promoted, primarily within a manual of trial results. The manual is supported by the GRDC and was distributed free to 14,000 farmers in 2000. The group recently attainted the status of a Registered Research Agency, which recognizes that its research is being conducted with the rigor required to ensure the validity of the outcomes. “There is no longer any temptation to dismiss the group as a backyard operation of farmers playing around with demonstration trials,” say its leaders. The Birchip Cropping Group can be found on the Internet at www.bcg.org.au
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