soil-conservation-people-religion-and-land.pdf - South West NRM

A.I.A.S. Symp. 20/10/89
EFFECTIVE GROUPS AND GROUP EXTENSION:
KEY TO LAND CARE ACTION
ABSTRACT
Rural extension organizations have always had three main
types of communication available: 1. Individual Contact, 2.
Group Extension, and 3. Mass Communication.
All three approaches have an important contribution to
make in different situations and at various stages of
acceptance of new ideas. Queensland has used individual
contact and mass communication widely and effectively for
decades, but group extension has been applied only
sporadically and by a limited number of extension workers,
both departmental and private.
The emergence of the Land Care movement has not only
placed new demands on the advisory services, but calls for a
different approach to how they approach their extension task.
The prime change in the advisory field is the shift of
initiative from the extension service to the landholder groups
in the form of Land Care or Land Management committees. This
places the advisor in the position of a supporting resource
person responding to requests of the groups.
The Land Care movement will stand or fall by the
effectiveness of the committees which form the framework for
improved land management. The factors which make for
committee effectiveness have now become essential elements for
study by the extension worker. These elements must be
understood and dynamically integrated into the activities of
the group. Group Property Planning and Demonstration Projects
will form the central core of activities in this long-awaited
era of environmental awareness in rural Australia.
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.--. INTRODUCTION
In-11987 the writer summed up the Australian extension
situation as follows:
lfSince ' the early 1920s the recognition of land
degradation has led to the enactment of legislation and the
appointment of soil conservation staff in all states. Over
time there has been sporodic emphasis given to the extension
of soil conservation information in different
'school of Applied Science, Darling Downs Institute of
Advanced Education, Post Office Darling Heights, Toowoomba.
Qld. 4350.