2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Rapidly changing economic, environmental and social conditions continually present new challenges to researchers and farmers alike. The purpose of this study was to use participatory methods to make decisions about research design in sustainable organic strawberry systems. This research combines the input of university researchers, biological scientists, and farmers to create rigorous research design, objectives and new knowledge collectively. Alongside biological data collection, we complement these data by collaborating with local farmers to ensure our research is relevant to industry interests and concerns. University of Florida researchers have used this method in research projects since 2014. Experience with this method shows that egalitarian decision-making enhances research quality through improved research designs, treatments, data collection techniques and output. This presentation details the results from three years of research in partnership with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) investigating sustainable organic strawberry cropping systems in the Southeast. In the 2017, 2018 and 2019 strawberry season, we invited farmers to blindly assess our on-station research plots. An in-depth discussion followed where farmers proposed research objectives, suggested areas of investigation and ultimately developed recommendations for future research. Three years of assessments reveals that expertise from biological researchers and practical knowledge from growers are necessary for successful research projects. Biological researchers and farmers have distinct knowledge sets that can complement one another. Facilitating direct intervention of farmers in research development helps eliminate potentially impractical ideas. This type of collaboration can save considerable time and money that would otherwise be diverted to unproductive efforts. Implications in this study and future studies will be discussed. This work is supported by Organic Agriculture Research and Extension Initiative grant no. 2015-51300-24134 from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.