Advice and advisory roles about work on farms. A review

The organization of work and changes in patterns of working life is of increasing concern to farmers worldwide. This creates challenges for advisors, who do not always know (i) how to recognize farmers' or their own needs for knowledge and new approaches to farm work organization or (ii) how to assess different methods of advice to tackle this issue. How are advisors responding to this concern and what are the implications for advisory roles and the advisory situation? In this paper, we review the situation of farm work organization changes and advisory responses. We describe a conceptual framework integrating different foundations relating to work organization on farms, the farmer-advisor relationship and methods of advice. Applying this framework to farm work organization and advisory responses in Australia, Belgium, France and Uruguay, our findings are as follows: (i) the specific characteristics of work are a source of difficulties for both farmers and advisors; (ii) for the farmers, work is a very personal subject linked to identity; (iii) for the advisors, it requires different methods of advisory practice and skills; (iv) success of advisory roles in the context of farm work requires the control of various role statements'; and (v) the organizational framework in which advisors carry out their activity, as well as specific training, can make it easier to identify and organize the skills.