SOCIAL media, particularly Facebook, is proving a winner for farmers wishing to take a virtual look over their fence, according to a leading Tasmanian soil scientist.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Dr Doris Blaesing, of Penguin, has been awarded the AUSVEG Researcher of the Year Award at the National Awards for Excellence, held on the Gold Coast.
The award, sponsored by Bayer CropScience, recognised a researcher who had a track record of work which advanced the industry and offered long-term benefits, AUSVEG chief executive Richard Mulcahy said.
"A lot of people think Facebook is something for kids, but it is a really good way of having a continual flow of information out to farmers," Dr Blaesing said.
"They don't have to be proficient in using it, they don't need to be members. It's easy to get onto our website and click on the links."
She said the researcher of the year award was for her work on the Soil Wealth Project, funded by Horticulture Australia.
"They have reacted well to requests from growers to fund this type of work.
"It is also important to note the project is a collaboration between Applied Horticultural Research and RM Consulting Group."
Project manager Dr Gordon Rogers and Dr Anne-Maree Boland, who was running the parallel Integrated Crop Protection project, were both also nominated for the researcher of the year award by AUSVEG.
Dr Blaesing said growers and agronomists were the key to the project as it reflected what they wanted.
It drew together existing research rather than carrying out new studies.
"Farmers are really important, it's like a perpetual 'looking over the fence' - they can look over the fence at what leading vegetable producers are doing in each growing region," Dr Blaesing said.
They could then pick and choose methods which best suited them.
The next phase was to look at "soft tillage" of soil, to reduce the impact of erosion and degradation.
Scientists also needed to look at ways of getting rid of crop residues, particularly when it came to brassicas like cauliflower and broccoli.