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

These figures exclude the contributions of secondary
agencies such as the Department of Agriculture in NSW or
conservation and Land Management in WA. The data suggest that
if significant contributions to soil conservation are being
made in states other than NSW, they are being made by
organizations which are not the states' prime agency. In
recent years the appointment of NSCP-funded extension posts
has improved the situation in soil conservation extension in
at least five states.
Much of the information supplied by departmental officers
on crop and animal production could be gained from commercial
sources. However, in the field of land capability, farm
planning and some aspects of consenration farming techniques,
the states' soil conservation agencies are often the only
source of scientific information used by landholders. A shift
in public attitude may make it necessary to examine the
advisory services available to agriculturists relative to the
service available to other industries such as manufacturing,
small business and commercial enterprize generally. The
reason for such enquiry lies in the free apparent overservicing
of the farming community in the sphere of commercial
production at a time when scarce funds could be better spent
in the sphere of resource use planning and implementation of
sound land management (Roberts 1987).
The identity problem of the professional extension
officer has been described by the author (Roberts 1986) as
follows: "While many in research would point to the severe
cuts in funding which they have suffered in recent years, they
do have an identity, a status, a well-established educational
base, a range of specialist societies which act as their
spiritual home, and regular professional conferences well
reported in their research journals. Extension on the other
hand as none of these pillars of the profession. It has
virtually no recognized degree training programme (with one
exception) , no society, no journal, no status, no identity, no
nothing! In practice, extension officers make do as well as
they can. They seek a technical home in the agricultural
societies, a sociological home in the social sciences, a
methottol-~gical home in the informatics and a career path in
whateve is available at the time. A useful bibliography of
Australian extension contributions (Chamala et al. 1985)
reflects'the above problems quite vividly."
THE NEW SITUATION
For the first time in the nation's history there is not
only a widespread awareness of the community8s dependence on
the land for the major portion of national production but a
realization that land care is a necessary ingredient for
national survival. Lost production through degradation has
been valued at $600 million per annum. This long-awaited
change in man/land relations has the potential to usher in an
era characterised by new community values relating to
environmental concern. This in turn can be expected to bring
new responsibilities and roles for both landholders and land