Denise Maurice, the Canola Council of Canada’s crop production vice president remembers a farmer calling her up in a panic.
He had found a new weed and it was spreading. So he ran to the photocopier, put the weed on the glass, photocopied it, faxed it to Maurice, and she ran to weed picture books to identify it.
“That was like old school,” she said a few minutes ago at the CCC convention in San Francisco.
Technology has evolved and the council is hoping to get faster, easier access to farmers. But how to do it? Cellphones? Smartphones? Computers?
The council is in the middle of a project of developing “just in time” crop production knowledge out to growers in a way they want. So while the council has already completed a survey with farmers about this topic, don’t be surprised if CCC officials seem oddly interested in whether you use a cellphone, have a Blackberry, use a laptop in the field, hate computers, etc. They’re trying to figure out how you want to deal with that panic that hits you next time you see a weird new weed and need immediate help.
