Experts at the University of Southern Queensland will employ the online virtual world Second Life in a bid to disseminate information on future climate changes they managed to predict, to regional farmers in India and through out the world.

The Australian Centre for Sustainable Catchments (ACSC) at the university completed a "successful" trial of a web-based discussion-support for climate information for regional Indian farmers in Hyderabad. Now, the ACSC wants to go full-throttle and expand the program to include the rest of India. If successful, they will then replicate the procedure to other nations.

Using the ACSC’s research, staff and students from Toowoomba’s University of Southern Queensland (USQ) campus hold a casual discussion about upcoming climate trends over Second Life.

Regional farmers throughout India can go to one of the thousands of newly built internet kiosks located throughout regional areas of India to listen in on the Second Life conversations. According to the ACSC, this will get these regional farmers "clued in about upcoming climate trends."

"Distance education and phone calls might work to get regional Indian farmers talking about climate, but how do you inform 600 million of them?," Professor Roger Stone, director of the ACSC, said. According to him, the trial had been "a great success" and got a "very positive" feedback from the farmers.

"India has recently had many thousands of low-cost wireless internet kiosks installed in rural villages throughout the country so this gives farmers an easy and convenient way to receive communication.

"By letting them sit in on the Second Life conversation, rather than just telling them directly, it gives them the ownership of finding out what climate is all about.

"Despite the expertise and research going into each online presentation, it’s presented as a casual conversation between two Indian farmers, which helps the farmers relate to it."

The program trial was done in partnership with the RANGA Agricultural University in Hyderabad and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU). Professor Stone said the trial was "highly effective" in educating rural Indian farmers on climate change and preparation for upcoming seasons. He ex[ressed his hope to open up the project to the rest of India and later, parts of Africa.

The Second Life discussions are available to view in several different languages and Professor Stone said many USQ students had helped the project with translations.

Dr Shabaz Mushtaq, who developed concept frameworks for eLearning approach in the project, said working on the project provided the ACSC with an exciting opportunity to integrate the research and application of climate science.

"It’s an approach that could reach a greater proportion of farmers," Dr Mushtaq said.

"Having developed a method for producing relevant and appropriate information in a relatively fast and less expensive way has been very rewarding and is sure to provide further opportunities for many other areas."

Souce: University of Southern Queensland