Mahnaz Afsar, a PhD candidate and member of the Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development (CAED), is embarking on a four-year research project. Through the Australian Research Council's (ARC) Training Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption (BITA), Mahnaz aims to bridge the gap between innovative technologies and the farmers who could benefit from them. Her work focuses on helping farmers in South-West Western Australia (SWWA) adopt precision agriculture tools like spatial mapping by applying insights derived through behavioural science.
The Research Project
Precision agriculture, particularly spatial mapping, offers transformative benefits for farmers. By analysing geographic data, this tool helps optimise decisions about water use, soil management, and resource efficiency. The result leads to lower costs, higher productivity, and better environmental sustainability.
Despite these advantages, many farmers are hesitant to embrace such technologies, often citing concerns about complexity, cost, and uncertain outcomes. Traditional agricultural extension programs—workshops, field demonstrations, and training—have focused primarily on delivering technical knowledge. However, these approaches often fail to address the deeper, human factors influencing adoption, such as risk aversion, resistance to change, and trust.
A Behavioural Science Approach
Mahnaz believes that adopting new technology isn’t just a technical challenge; it’s also a psychological and social one. Behavioural science explores how people make decisions enabling more targeted interventions for behaviour change. Tools like nudging, framing, and social proof have been successfully applied in other sectors to change behaviour.
Mahnaz’s research will explore how these techniques can be applied to agricultural extension programs, making them more effective at addressing farmers’ concerns.
The study will focus on three key areas:
Reviewing past approaches: Analysing the successes and limitations of extension strategies used in WA.
Understanding advisors’ and farmers' perspectives: Conducting interviews with extension agents, and experts along with literature review to uncover the behavioural factors influencing adoption and farmers’ responsiveness towards extension strategies.
Testing behavioural strategies: Design and implement lab experiments to evaluate the effectiveness of incorporating behavioural insights, such as nudging and framing, into extension strategies.
Working with Industry
Supported by the ARC BITA and the WA Agricultural Research Collaboration (WAARC), this project will be conducted in collaboration with an industry partner, The Grower Group Alliance (GGA).
GGA plays a pivotal role in the project by providing practical insights from an industry perspective and offering guidance on stakeholder engagement and the practical implementation of research findings. This collaboration ensures that the research is grounded in real-world contexts and addresses the needs of farmers and extension agents alike. By leveraging GGA’s extensive network of farmers, extension experts, and industry professionals, the research has a strong foundation for meaningful impact and innovation.
By integrating behavioural science into extension services, Mahnaz’s research aims to contributes to the development of more adaptive, responsive, and targeted extension services to make precision agriculture technologies more accessible and appealing.
For more information:
PhD Candidate, Ms Mahnaz Afsar: mahnaz.afsar@research.uwa.edu.au
Supervisor, Prof Marit Kragt: marit.kragt@uwa.edu.au
ARC Training Centre for Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption (BITA) website: ARC BITA
WA Agricultural Research Collaboration: WAARC announces first cohort of postgraduate scholarship students
Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development: https://www.uwacaed.org/
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