Farmdoc

Since the early days of the internet, the creators of farmdoc have demonstrated how agricultural innovation can occur online. What eventually evolved into farmdoc started as the Illinois Grain Risk Outreach (I-GRO) site in 1999, one of the first websites devoted to helping farmers understand agriculture predictions and research. Building upon this foundation, the site relaunched as the Farm Decision Outreach Center (farmdoc) in 2000.

Through farmdoc, farmers in Illinois and beyond have 24/7 access to content related to agricultural law, agricultural policy, crop insurance, and numerous other topics. Similar to more conventional forms of agriculture extension, farmdoc focuses on demonstration. Using an innovative platform to distribute information about traditional problems farmers face sets farmdoc apart.

How can we visualize the impact of farmdoc? The graphic below, created by the farmdoc team, compares flows of information from the Illinois Extension Office. Traditionally, a hierarchy of Extension specialists gradually distributes information. With farmdoc, a group of ACE faculty and Extension team members put information online for clients to access directly.

Since 2000, the farmdoc team has constantly sought ways to improve. An initiative to post one new article per day called farmdoc daily began in 2011.  In 2016, farmdoc launched Farm Policy News and established a stronger social media presence. Moving forward, the farmdoc project will continue to innovate by blending its two models of Agricultural Extension and pushing the boundaries of how agricultural innovations use the internet.