James Cook University Australia

Program: Adoption Officers

Program Goal

Adoption Officers work across the TNQ Drought Hub’s multiple programs to support farmers and their communities to pick up innovative tools and practices to build drought-resilient businesses.

In March 2022, an extra $9 million was announced for the Drought Resilience Adoption and Innovation Hubs to employ Adoption Officers across regional Australia, to give farmers practical assistance applying the latest in drought resilience innovation and technology.

Since then, the TNQ Drought Hub Adoption Officers have worked with 100’s of farmers from all across Tropical North Queensland to increase the uptake of new practices and technologies, provide feedback to the hubs on what farmers want, and build strong networks for enhanced drought resilience and sustainability.

Featured Projects

Resilience through AgTech Support - the Innovation Pipeline

Innovation and technology offer significant potential to enhance drought preparedness and build social, economic, and environmental resilience in agriculture. However, despite the growing access to AgTech solutions, adoption remains challenging for many farmers, producers, and land managers.
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Cape York and Gulf Savannah Producer Group

We are looking for producers in the Cape York and Gulf Savannah regions who want to learn how data-driven decision-making can lead to better outcomes, more informed strategies and improved overall performance. Participants will have opportunities to collaborate, exchange experiences, and share best practices with each other.
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Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite On-farm Connectivity Trial

The aim of the LEO Satellite trials was to empower producers to adopt technologies that would make improvements to their business, education, medical access, and social access if they had better connectivity.
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Playlist

2 Videos
Keerah Starlink
Jane Barker out and about1
Producer Groups (Keerah Steele) (4)
Newsletter-Carrie-Ann Willson (Image courtesy of GroWQ Innovation Expo)
2025.06.23-27 Tropical Innovation Festival, Cairns (2)
Website Food Futures Conference Darwin (9)
Website Food Futures Conference Darwin (2)
Website Food Futures Conference Darwin (12)
EvokeAg 2025 Various (1)
Agtech24
Agtech24
Agtech24
CQ Organics “Bindaree”
CQ Organics “Bindaree”
20221221_Megadeen_RHAY (32)edited
TNQ Hub Internal Forum Mackay (Emily Harrington) (13)
IMG_4491
Edited Keerah Steele (13)
Edited Keerah Steele (11)

Jane Barker

Technical Adoption Officer - South

Jane holds a Ba App Science majoring in Rangelands Management. Her industry experience in beef cattle, agritourism and agribusiness analysis over the past 25 years has developed a practical and technical skillset where she is at ease in the paddock and the office. Jane looks to improve agritech systems to strengthen adoption and our industries responsiveness to variability.

Carrie-Ann Wilson

Knowledge Adoption Officer

Carrie-Ann Wilson is an HDR student at James Cook University. Her MPhil explored the adoption of connectivity technologies in small and medium enterprises in rural, regional and remote Australia, and her PhD research will focus on technology adoption decision-making processes in the agricultural sector. Through the application of human-centred methodologies, she studies the intersection between people, technology and work. Carrie’s commitment to this work stems from experience in delivering digital solutions to regionally based businesses and organisations.