The Unsung Farmer-Inventor

This doctoral study is examining Irish farmers' motivators in the creation and subsequent sharing or commercialisation of tangible farming artefacts, in order to support Teagasc to better understand farm-level invention processes. User innovation research is usually approached from the economic and business disciplines, often based on survey methods. There is little exploration of the social and cultural dimensions of farmers' inventing, including their interactions with the formal Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS). Methods include a review of over 200 inventions and interviews with farmer-inventors and AKIS actors. Analysis of the data suggests that while most farmer-inventors share their inventions freely, those who wish to commercialise their ideas face practical and cultural obstacles, and a lack of help from organisations charged with innovation support. They persevere, however, spurred on by great satisfaction in their inventing and the desire to honour and improve intergenerational resilience, resulting in strategies of social, cultural, and symbolic capital accumulation.

This PhD project takes a multi-perspective approach that finds farmers to be an underappreciated and neglected source of knowledge and invention.