Using the three-stage approach to adoption planning (below) will produce a list of innovations/new practices that are relevant to different grower populations based on their current practices, skills and capacities, and aspirations. Having collected data to determine the practices that are/are not occurring within an agricultural system/region/population through Stage 1 (see Practice data: the missing piece for adoption success), the next steps are to identify and analyse the barriers to adoption of the practices and innovations that may be suitable to your target population. The following post provides you with a background to the identification and analysis of enablers and constraints to adoption.
Background to identification and analysis of enablers and constraints to adoption
Stage 2 and 3 of the adoption plan process (above) is based on the concepts associated with enablers and constraints to adoption contained within the seminal publications of Everett Rogers (The Diffusion of Innovations), David Pannell et al. (Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders), Geoff Kuehne et al. (Predicting farmer uptake of new agricultural practices: A tool for research, extension and policy) and the resultant ADOPT Tool. While there is no shortage of ‘adoption’ studies, frameworks, models, methods and principles available for consideration within the Australian ag sector, if you are looking to gain clear, practical, and intelligent information on adoption then the aforementioned publications contain 95% of all you’ll need to know.
Rogers’s Diffusion of Innovation is significant for its historical context i.e. first of its kind, its depth and its insight into the factors that influence the rate of adoption of new practices in agriculture. He was the first to recognise and describe the importance of:
Relative advantage – “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supersedes. The degree of relative advantage may be measured in economic terms, but social prestige factors, convenience, and satisfaction are also important factor”.
Compatibility – the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, past experiences, and needs of potential adopters”.
Complexity – “the degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand”.
Trialability – “the degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis”
Observability – “the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to other.
He was also the first to conceptualise an innovation-decision process (knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation). It is a model that has endured the test of time, academic scrutiny and practical/applied application. The diagram below (Steps to Adoption) is an adaption of Roger’s innovation-decision model that I find useful when discussing and planning adoption.
David Pannell’s et al equally significant publication built upon the work of Rogers and the plethora of academic publications that he influenced. Pannell et al. corralled the many disciplines that are associated with adoption principles to present a comprehensive “cross-discipline consensus” on the factors that are important in the adoption of practices by rural landholders. Relative advantage is recognised by Pannell et al as “the decisive factor determining the ultimate level of adoption of most innovations in the long run”. They also identify trialability/learnability as another significant factor in influencing adoption of technology or new practice. This paper provided the conceptual framework on which the ADOPT Tool by Kuehne et al is based.
The ADOPT Tool is one of the most significant advances within the agricultural innovation system in adoption planning. ADOPT is designed as “a tool with the joint aims of predicting the future level of adoption of a new farming practice by a particular population of farmers, and of enhancing the understanding of practice adoption by diverse agricultural stakeholders” (Kuene et al.). It provides change agents, whether they are extension practitioners, researcher, RD&E investment managers or policy-makers, with the capacity to quantify the relative likelihood of an innovation/new practice being adopted (peak adoptability) and the time it will take for peak adoption to occur. It is based on assessing the relative advantage and learnability characteristics of both the practice itself and the population of potential adoptees. An adoption plan is not complete if it doesn’t utilise the power of the ADOPT Tool. ADOPT is great for predicting peak adoption and time to peak adoption, but you need other data to understand who to define as adopters (a particular population of farmers).
To see how to apply this knowledge refer to Stage 2 and 3 adoption planning (identification and analysis of enablers and constraints to adoption)
Next resource:
For further information
Diffusion of Innovations, 5th edition – Everett M. Rogers (2003)
Understanding and promoting adoption of conservation practices by rural landholders, Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture, 2006, 46, 1407–1424 – D. Pannell, G. Marsh, N Barr, A Curtis, F. Vanclay and R. Wilkinson https://doi.org/10.1071/EA05037
Predicting farmer uptake of new agricultural practices: A tool for research, extension and policy, Agricultural Systems, 2017, 156, 115-125 – G. Kuehne, R. Llewellyn, D. Pannell, R. Wilkinson, P. Dolling, J. Ouzman and M. Ewing
