The year started with floods in Toowoomba and South East Queensland and also brought on a flood of projects in both the extension and evaluation areas. The year saw Jeff in Chile (running extension training for the dairy industry) and New Zealand (looking at evaluating extension and development impact in dairy). Extension training was also undertaken in the grains industry as GRDC funded a project to pilot such training with the private sector.
Other projects focused on North Queensland with the use of extension, regulation and incentives to fast track change in land management to improve water quality in the Great Barrier Reef zone – and took us to Tasmania and New South Wales to review sheep extension projects. We even had our hand in a marketing project that sought to boost Queensland horticultural exports overseas. A on-going impact evaluation of a large program researching the northern rivers across Australia added to the range of interesting and challenging projects.
The Productivity Commission’s review of the Research and Development sector in agriculture has certainly put the focus back on extension, training and education programs directed at on-ground change – and hence an urgency for more and even better evaluation! 2012 is shaping up as equally busy. We will keep you posted. May it be a good year for all of you.