Growing Connections: How can farmers and researchers build more effective partnerships?

When farmers are engaged members of the agri-food research process, researchers can ensure that their projects have real-world impacts while farmers benefit from being at the forefront of innovations. But there are many complicating factors that make this a difficult synergy to maintain.

On February 26, 2025, the Research Innovation Office and the Ontario Soil Network brought together over 20 farmers and researchers to share their thoughts on these challenges. The day consisted of several presentations highlighting successes from collaborative research project shared jointly by researcher and farmer co-presenters. The attendees were then divided into groups to discuss in-depth questions about how farmer-researcher collaborations can be more effective. Group members were shuffled to ensure a mix of perspectives at each table.

Together, they recommended the following ideas for growing stronger connections between farmers and agri-food researchers and removing barriers in agricultural innovation. These insights have also been compiled into a one-page summary (below).

1. Meet them where they’re at (literally)

Building a shared understanding is an essential foundation for an effective collaboration. It is important to ensure that the team understands the upfront risks and costs for the project. Establishing clear timelines is an important consideration as well. Farmers are accustomed to ongoing data analysis to inform their practices on-farm, whereas formal research publications are an extensive and time-consuming process. Farmers face urgent challenges like pest and disease outbreaks, nutrient management, and ensuring animal welfare, which demand immediate solutions—not the slow pace of traditional research. Research teams must understand that these projects require them to be nimble and transparent with their process and findings. Discuss with your collaborators what would be helpful and achievable, such as annual reports of raw data or regular updates about the status of the analyses.

An example to illustrate this concept: during one of the project presentations, a researcher in the audience asked why more test plots weren’t included in the experiment. The farmer co-presenter explained that, yes, while more test plots would have strengthened the statistical power of the study, it was an financial risk  the farmer was unwilling to take for a potentially less effective management practice. Instead, the research team carefully planned the experiment to get the most data out of the land while minimizing the farmers’ risk. Understanding and respecting this balance between both perspectives helps to avoid conflicts during the research project and protect the interests and risks of both parties.

And beyond this shared understanding, it’s helpful to get your boots on the ground and meet farmers on-site. Showing up in-person demonstrates commitment, strengthens trust, and allows insight into the practical considerations of how the trial will be implemented on the farm. When designing research with a farmer collaborator, it is important to consider the distance to the farm from the research centre, as this can be a limiting factor for the project. If regular travel to the farm is not an option, consider alternative opportunities to maintain connection with the farmer.

2. Make research more relevant

Building on the idea of meeting people where they’re at, ensuring research aligns with real-world needs is crucial. Researchers and farmers need to connect early in the project development process and stay in communication throughout. This ongoing consultation will shape a project that addresses a real, practical problem that farmers need solved. Building a strong business case for the project benefits from being informed about the scope and scale of the research opportunities on-farm and their economic implications. Starting these conversations early can inform grant proposals, project design, and how the results should be shared. The time and effort invested into forming these relationships with project partners has multiple payoffs, especially when the collaborators are involved early in the process.

Farmers can also play a key role in maximizing the project dataset and in return, any datasets should be shared back with the farmers. Farmers’ existing data collection procedures, knowledge of additional factors that could be of interest to the project, as well as any data collected in previous seasons can add context to a project. And where datasets may be incomplete or show deviations from the norm, historical records may be useful for filling in gaps. For example, if planting started much later than usual one season, the team could cross-reference those dates with weather data showing heavy storms during the normal planting time. The farmer’s notes as to this reason at the time could easily be forgotten or misplaced in the flurry of activity during planting, leaving an otherwise unexplained gap in the data.

When it comes to communicating research results, scientific papers are the main currency of researchers, but these technical articles are not the most accessible or effective method of communication outside of academia.  Conversely, more accessible forms of communication  like YouTube videos or social media posts are commonly used by farmers but not as common in scientific discourse. Using multiple communication tools to guide how results will be shared ensures that the project will have valuable and trustworthy outcomes for both the research team, the farmer, and beyond. 

As some of the farmers explained during the event, a project could be deemed by the research team to show an innovation to be effective, but if the farmer digs deeper into the data to learn that the results show only a 1% improvement, it’s unlikely to be motivating enough to invest in a change of on-farm practices. On the other hand, if the study shows a 20% improvement, that knowledge needs to be shared more broadly outside of conventional academic spaces. Contextualizing the results in practical frames of reference prevents miscommunications about the impact of the results and allows farmers to make more informed decisions about buying in to new innovations.

3. Find the right project partners

Cooperation during the research project process is essential and begins with choosing the right partners to collaborate with and plan for success. Invest time into developing a robust project plan and procedures to ensure smooth communication between team members. Farms are susceptible to a range of external and environmental factors, and research projects should be designed to be flexible with the realities of farm schedules. Complicating factors such as weather can derail plans, and farmers often work outside of the conventional 9-5 hours and may not wait until business hours to make decisions about problems that arise. Establishing expectations for this flow of communication in addition to safeguarding the project plan from normal causes of delays is an important part of these collaborations and helps avoid frustrations.

Imagine a scenario involving a researcher with rigid demands about how the trial is conducted, communication only during regular business hours, and an unwillingness to share results until the final reporting stage. The farmer collaborator could easily see this as an inequitable dynamic and fear that they will not be supported if an issue arises – and neither party will likely want to engage in a future project together. Contrast that with a team that has discussed communication procedures during project planning and has clear expectations for each phase of the project – those team members are likely to troubleshoot problems early and effectively, produce highly relevant outputs from the project, and recommend this type of collaboration to their peers.

In many cases, farmers are already using efficient strategies and have a sustainable profit model, so there needs to be substantial incentive to experiment with new ideas, above and beyond the hope for marginal efficiency or yield improvements. The complications associated with changing their routine methods, particularly for large-scale trials, is a major barrier to engaging with researchers. Thus, there should be clear mutual benefit to engaging in a research project and the team should consider the factors that would make the implementing the project unnecessarily difficult or risky. Genuine interest in the research question and a personal connection to the problem under investigation can be powerful motivators for both sides of the project team to stay focused on the project mission.

The research team benefits from finding farmers who are early adopters, and farmers benefit from trustworthy research teams. Using professionals in related sectors, such as Certified Crop Advisors or organizations like the Ontario Soil Network, can be a bridge to help both parties find each other. These networks can then build a community of innovators for sharing results and developing future research projects. This also helps protect the same farmers from being repeatedly tapped for multiple research projects and overextending themselves. In return, the entire community can benefit from the insights of the research project and the lessons learned from the process of working together.

Strengthening connections between farmers and agri-food researchers requires ongoing effort, trust, and mutual understanding. By fostering collaborative partnerships, ensuring research remains relevant, and thoughtfully selecting the right project partners, both groups can work together to drive agricultural innovation forward. The discussions from this event highlight the importance of bridging the gap between scientific inquiry and practical application, ensuring that farmers have access to impactful research while researchers benefit from real-world insights. As these partnerships continue to evolve, they will play a crucial role in shaping a more resilient and innovative agricultural landscape.