“We would be very grateful for expert input from Society of Agriculture members and others with relevant knowledge of these technologies and their adoption in UK farming.”
Agricultural innovation depends not only on good ideas, but also on whether those ideas are adopted in practice, by whom, how quickly, and under what conditions. Across the UK, research, development and extension (RD&E) investment is expected to support productivity, sustainability and resilience in farming systems. However, the benefits of RD&E can take many years to materialise, and the adoption pathway of innovations is often difficult to judge at the point when funding decisions are made.
A current research project at Harper Adams University is exploring whether the Adoption Diffusion Outcome Prediction Tool (ADOPT) developed by Kuehne et al. (2017) could help strengthen early assessment of agricultural RD&E proposals in the UK. ADOPT was developed to estimate the likely extent and speed of adoption of agricultural innovations, based on characteristics of the target population, the innovation itself, learning processes, and expected benefits and risks. The model has been used internationally and is often linked with cost-benefit analysis to inform decisions about investment in agricultural innovation.