British farmers could improve production levels by engaging with scientists more on social media, researchers have suggested. FarmingUK reports that farmers and scientists are encouraged to engage with each other on social media to improve the carbon footprint of farms and increase production of crops and livestock.
Researchers at Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) analysed a million tweets relating to agriculture and rural society in Scotland between 2019-20 to see levels of social media engagement. They found that while a considerable number of farmers use social media to discuss agriculture among other topics, they tend to group with other farmers while interaction with scientists is limited.
Likewise, scientists, for the most part, engage with other scientists on Twitter.
The aim of SRUC’s research is to enable more accurate information sharing in online spaces as well as a faster uptake of ideas from science to the farm.
Source: FarmingUK. Full story here
