The Regional Australia Institute was engaged by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) and Cotton Research and Development Corporation (CRDC) to develop an understanding of the social impacts of GRDC and CRDC research in regional communities and subsequently develop a framework for assessing the socio-economic impacts of their agricultural research, development and extension projects in regional communities. 

The framework provides a standardised structure which can be adapted to cover multiple types of agricultural innovations, including new technologies, practices, policies and business models. The framework is designed for assessing the socio-economic impacts of agricultural innovations beyond the farm-gate. The assessment framework is designed to complement agricultural production and first order economic benefit analysis by assessing broader societal impacts such as community resilience, socio-economic equality, and workforce skills and availability.

As the GRDC and CRDC lead investment in grains and cotton research, development and extension (RD&E) in Australia, it is important to understand where the institute is driving positive change and delivering the greatest impacts for both growers and regional and rural communities. The GRDC’s Performance and Impact Framework identifies three broad areas of assessment: GRDC’s investment level impact, on-farm adoption and impact, and cumulative impacts aggregated at a grains sector level. Whilst this is necessary to monitor the economic impact of GRDC investment and RD&E activities, there are many social impacts (direct or spillover), that can be additionally considered to further evaluation the contributions of GRDC and CRDC. The socio-economic impacts can be incorporated into this framework or operate as a standalone framework.  

In the Strategic RD&E Plan 2023-28, CRDC states that their RD&E investments aim to boost environmental, social, and economic benefits for cotton growers, the cotton industry, regional communities and the broader Australian public. This underscores the importance to design a socio-economic impact assessment framework to monitor, evaluate and communicate the broad and diverse impact of agricultural RD&E investment. 

The framework detailed within this document has been constructed using a combination of sources:

• literature on Australian and international socio-economic assessment frameworks[1]
• information provided by the GRDC and CRDC, such as the GRDC Performance Impact Framework
• information gained from RAI-facilitated workshops in July 2023
• fieldwork in three case study regions to understand the socio-economic impacts of GRDC and CRDC research in each community.

The RAI conducted fieldwork in the three GRDC growing regions: Eyre Peninsula (Southern), Goondiwindi (Northern) and Dalwallinu (Western) to gain a deeper understanding of the socio-economic impacts of GRDC and CRDC research that is playing a significant role in supporting innovation in agriculture. Agricultural innovations clearly have extensive impacts on local communities, beyond the immediate effects on the agriculture industry and related sectors. These impacts were noted as being relatively consistent across all fieldwork regions, though the extent of impact was unique to each region. Notable observed impacts included: shifting from on-farm labour to off-farm technical expertise, an improved ability to mitigate environmental pressures (particularly water scarcity), high capital cost and barriers to entry, and decreasing use of local suppliers in favour of specialised distributors. More complex, multi-directional relationships were also observed with housing and labour markets.  See the appendix for further details of these findings. 

A socio-economic impact assessment (SEIA) is a tool for evaluating the potential impacts of a set of proposed or existing changes and predicting stakeholder responses. Socio-economic impact assessments can be used to identify vulnerable groups and inequalities, incorporate local voices and assess impacts on local economies and communities. Various frameworks exist for SEIA, with a notable example in the agriculture sector being the Socio-Economic Impact Assessment Toolkit developed by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. Key to a successful SEIA is selecting appropriate indicators, with best practice centring on indicators that cover industry characteristics, community impacts, workforce impacts, and Indigenous impacts.

Well-designed and conducted SEIAs can provide significant benefits by informing and enhancing decision making and improving the long-term sustainability of research and development innovation through improved community outcomes.  

See, for example, Maughan C. 2012. Monitoring and evaluating social impacts in Australia. CRC-REP Working Paper

CW003. Ninti One Limited, Alice Springs. On international frameworks, see Vanclay, F., Esteves, A. M., Aucamp, I., & Franks, D. 2015. Social Impact Assessment: Guidance for assessing and managing the social impacts of projects.