Inferring the right conclusions from field trials is important - how confident can you be that a result is 'real' rather than due to the underlying noise?
As part of the Farm-PEP FIP project we are working with BGS to explore the best ways to communicate confidence, uncertainty, significance, probability and value with farmers and growers.
This Group is to discuss and ultimately agree the best approaches for communicating useful statistics with farmers and advisors, to reach valid conclusions.
We held a workshop with farmers and advisors on 22 February - Take a mentimeter Quiz on your understanding of the statistics used to interpret trial results at https://www.menti.com/sq69yfogoj
ADAS provides ideas, specialist knowledge and solutions to secure our food and enhance the environment. We understand food production and the challenges and opportunities faced by organisations operating in the natural environment
Innovative Farmers was established in 2012 by the Soil Association with the aim of bringing scientific rigour to on-farm trials co-designed by farmers and researchers. With a focus on sustainability and resilience, groups come together on discrete topics and on-farm trials addressing the topics that matter to them.
Agronomics is the science of understanding the variation in the cropped environment, identifying the management practices and system designs that work. It uses a farm centric approach of shared farm data and on-farm experimentation.
Farm-centric research generally involves On-Farm Experimentation and may be better described as 'Farm Action Research', i.e. research conducted at least in part by and for beneficiaries who also farm.
On Farm Experimentation (OFE) is increasingly being recognised as having transformative power in improving performance in agricultural systems across the world.
AICC member agronomists are now the preferred source of advice on over 2.2 million hectares, which is almost half of the UK’s arable land, and the demand for it is stronger than ever
Paper in Agronomy, 2021 by Jason B. Cho, Joseph Guinness Tulsi Kharel, Ángel Maresma, Karl J
Agricultural research is conducted by a range of organisations, from individual farmers, through advisors, distributors, manufacturers, charities, societies, supply chain companies, levy bodies, universities and research institutes. This page aims to connect across these often disparate sources.
The development of Farm-PEP Performance Enhancement Partnerships to support on-farm knowledge generation through shared ideas, data and experimentation. Funded as part of Farming Innovation Pathways programme from Defra and Innovate UK Transforming Food Production.
We are a world-leading independent research organisation providing objective, expert geoscientific data, information and knowledge.
Scientific paper in Field Crops Research (2018) by Ben Marchant of BGS and ADAS colleagu
Discussion
What are your views on whether statistical significance is a useful term for communicating confidence in a trial result with farmers & advisors? Would we be better off with a simple traffic light type system?