Identifying functional characteristics that enable learning in demonstrations: a discussion paper

Demonstration farms have a long tradition and have proved to be effective means of addressing problems and testing solutions at the farm level. However, demonstrations are operating in an increasingly complex and diverse arena of new policy and commercial imperatives, volatile costs and markets, changing farm structure, new technological and ICT advancements, and fragmented agricultural knowledge systems. They are also funded, initiated, coordinated and delivered by multiple actors and arrangements (programmes, networks etc) active at different spatial and temporal scales and aiming to achieve a range of objectives. These new demands and contexts call for a renewed understanding of the approaches used and the concepts that underpin them, in particular those relating to farmer learning in the demonstration.

The multi-faceted demonstration ‘learning system’ creates different contexts or conditions that enable learning. Of these contexts and conditions, structural and functional characteristics provide a good framework for analysis. This discussion paper aims to identify the key functional characteristics that enable learning in demonstrations. First theoretical insights into different forms of learning (single and double-loop) and social learning processes are considered. Following this, the functional characteristics that enable learning at programme level (e.g. strategies and approaches) and at farm and event level (e.g. mediation techniques) are discussed with reference to different forms of learning.
This paper is taken from work in the EU H2020 project AgriDemo-F2F project and complements two other papers in this IFSA session which examine the structural enabling environment and the cognitive processes of farm level peer to peer learning. An increased understanding of how learning through demonstration can be enabled in an increasingly complex context will help to develop institutions and programmes that aim to foster innovation in sustainable agriculture.