Application of Information Technology to Rural Communities: Case Study Taranaki

Abstract

Farmers need information to survive and to maximise profit. The intention of this study was to use an action research approach to create and establish the capability of connectedness for the Taranaki Rural Community the new global metanetwork, the Internet, to facilitate technology transfer. During Cycle One, the classic development communication model was applied to information demand using information technology. This model looked at the community from the outside, and sought to determine what information would be accessed to help improve farming. Cycle One did not work. During Cycle Two, the development communication model was applied with more rigour and the information was re-mounted using the World Wide Web's HTML format, yet still the model did not work. At this stage, the researcher began to question the underlying development communication theory. It was believed that the information needs of farmers in developed rural communities may be different to the information needs of farmers in developing communities (that the original model had been built on). Therefore Cycle Three looked at the possibility that Internet was a new International infrastructural network, which allowed for the growth of globally based "virtual communities" with similar farming interests. A modified form of ethonographic research and textual analysis was used to analyse information about farmer communication that had been gathered via the Graze-L Listserver. Examples of of not only scientific information (scientist-to-farmer), but also experiential information (farmer-to-farmer and farmer-to-scientist) transfer were found. This study concludes that aspects of the existing development communication model need modifying to take into account the emergence of network services based on the Internet which facilitate the publication of farmer experiential information. Further, if consideration is given to communication in agriculture being an activity that is specific to agriculture, then this researcher suggests the emergence of a new field of study, Agricultural Communication.