FAIRshare

FAIRshare was a 5-year H2020 project which focused on collating and developing digital tools for farm advisors.

Innovation for Agriculture led activities focusing on how farm advisors can effectively use digital tools and services for supporting a more productive and sustainable agriculture.

Developing digital tools

Our specific focus was on overcoming the challenge of on farm meeting restrictions for farm advisors, by choosing appropriate digital tools for remote consulting and decision support.

We selected and developed two digital tools:

• IfA Live platform on expanding further our knowledge exchange offerings focusing on climate friendly farming, including digital farm walks and events, and
• The Carbon Decision support tool for farmers/advisers to select the most appropriate carbon assessment for their business.

Ease of use and attractiveness was prioritised during tool development. The carbon support tool used simple yes/no questions to give a clear indication of which carbon audit is best suited overall, based on the farm enterprises present in each case. It could be used with or by advisors on behalf of their farm clients,

The IfA Live platform was colour coded so users could easily navigate to content that interests them. The tool was all about learning from others – it had recorded farm tours and presentations followed by a scheduled Q&A session.

Learnings from digital tool development

From developing the pilot tools and gaining feedback from users, Innovation for Agriculture collated the following key learnings from the FAIRShare project activities:

• Digital tools should be easy, attractive, social and timely
• Projects should take account of the farming calendar when planning activities to reduce barriers to users engaging in project activities
• Collaboration is key
  • You don’t know what you don’t know
  • Diverse skillsets are beneficial
  • Avoid re-inventing the wheel
  • Help users by reducing the need for repetitive data entry.