News & Updates

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Well just short trips since Chile.  A couple of days in Port Lincoln where I have been doing some work with the Eyre Peninsula NRM Board – looking at planning and evaluation for the major natural resource management programs.

Port Lincoln describes itself as…a thriving City where residents and visitors enjoy a clean, safe and unique location, enhanced by the surrounding natural environment…a major service centre to the Eyre Peninsula, with burgeoning aquaculture activity and services, which are provided to the vast region. It is the home of aquaculture.  It’s certainly a pleasant seaside location – great sunrises – over the bay.

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For some reason, the dairy industry has entered my radar over the last year.  I have had an enjoyable association with Dairy NZ looking at measuring impact which included a couple of visits to Hamilton New Zealand and out of left field came an invitation to visit Chile to talk about improving technology adoption in the dairy industry.

My two major work interests are agricultural extension and program evaluation and these occasions with the dairy industry provided me with terrific opportunity to pursue both areas.  For this update, I will focus on Chile.  As you would have seen in an earlier blog, we had the opportunity to travel to South America last year – but missed out on Chile, so it was rather nice to receive an invitation to visit and learn a little about what was happening in extension there.

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Having just come back from a good six weeks holiday in Europe, I thought it time to update my blog with another overseas instalment. Having had this business for almost a decade, I thought we were entitled to long service leave like anyone else – hence a full six weeks to allow the brain to wind down fully. Fortunately for me, Amy was there to hold the fort and so I could (almost) ignore the email traffic while travelling (its remarkable how much wireless access is available out there!).

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In the extension arena, we often talk about managing change.  We talk about capacity and resilience and making changes to improve our own lives and our communities.  It’s not just about taking the latest technology and applying it – but to have thoughtfully learned from our experiences and training and weighing up what to apply across our social, economic, environmental landscape.

My father, Keith Coutts, died recently.  It is a time of change in our extended family.  Someone who was always there – back in my ‘home town’ – is there no longer.  And somehow, the rest of us fit back into normal life and move on to take his place in life’s march.

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Having finally set foot on Fiji – I thought I would revert back to my international theme for this update!  Even though I had lived and worked in Papua New Guinea (see my earlier blog) and had projects in Asia, I longed for the opportunity to do something in the Pacific Islands.  Many years ago, I had to choose between a poultry-based job in Fiji – and one in PNG.  I chose PNG but often wondered where life would have taken me and my family had I chosen differently.

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