3D glasses as eye-opener of farmer perspectives
– an award-winning idea? 👀
The PHITO app: farmer-centered and science-based
Phito.eu is all about creating connections. Connecting the smallholder farmer with other relevant actors from the agri-sector and to data-driven insights, indeed. But on a larger level, we’re really aiming for connecting the agricultural sector with scientific insights.
As Cambisol, and as a wider Phito consortium, we’re used to having one foot in academia and one foot in the field (e.g. by applying our scientific methods in practical projects). But how do we establish a wider connection of these two worlds that could not be much more different? How do we incorporate the daily reality of farmer decision making in scientific studies? And perhaps more importantly, how do we downscale scientific findings into actionable advice for farmers?
It all starts with establishing the dialogue, and so we went on a mission…
😎 3D glasses as eye-opener for scientists about the farmer perspective
On our mission, we decided to meet the scientist in their academic family reunions, a.k.a. Scientific Conferences. And we came prepared!
Everyone will remember the hype of the early 2000s: the 3D glasses. Suddenly any major movie shown in cinema came in an extra dimension. We might be wrong, but it seems to have disappeared almost as quickly.
However, the anaglyph 3D effect of these coloured glasses can also be used in a different way: by only using the left blue glass, or the right red glass, one can show secret messages hidden to the naked eye. What better way to show two different perspectives to an audience?
We put ourselves down and started experimenting with semi-transparent layers in orange and cyan shades, in our preparations for the Big Family Reunions…
Phito at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) 2025: ‘Soil erosion: who cares?’
The EGU is one of the most massive gatherings of geographers in the world, and we managed to get our 3D-poster viewing in this 20.000 people annual meeting in Vienna. A dialogue-sparking presentation cannot go without a disruptive title, so we aimed at attracting soil scientists with ‘Soil erosion: who cares? An EU farmer perspective in 3D)’. And attracting scientists, it did!
Along with our poster, we handed out 3D glasses to show different layers hidden in this poster, with the ‘The Farmer’ perspective in orange hue and ‘The Scientist’ perspective in cyan colours. We then gave these world-leading soil scientist a little challenge of ‘spot the 15 differences’. Among these (in bold the differences between scientist / farmer POVs):
- EU policies / policing = a source of funding / frustration
- Soil as systemic / substrate layer, and erosion as long-term fertility / short term fertiliser loss
- Modern agronomic practices cause a loss of sediment / sentiment
The sessions was not limited to a monologue. After the participants solved the puzzle, they were asked to mark the poster using ❗’s where they think The Farmer underestimates the issue, and using ❓’s where they feel The Scientist might overrate the problem. (Curious about the outcomes? Keep reading til the end!)
Phito at the Italian Association of the Agricultural Science Societies (AISSA) conference 2025
Reinforced by our close collaborators from the University of Padova, we then aimed our arrows at the ‘AISSA under 40’ meeting in Napoli, June 2025. Great to see how the future generation of agricultural experts from all these institutes are full of vision and collaboration!
While we did bring our 3D glasses again, we slightly changed the scope of the poster this time: the different glasses now represented the contrasting Large Farmer vs. the Small Farmer perspectives. The aim now changed to increasing awareness of growing gap between these groups, and how Phito bridges that gap by helping small farmers to adopt digital innovation.
An award-winning idea!
After all the inspiring and fruitful discussions with the EGU and AISSA participants, it was only a cherry on the cake that the 3D glasses concept was awarded as the best poster.
Congratulations to poster authors Eugenio Straffelini, Anton Pijl, Colleen Pezzutti, and Paolo Tarolli!
(and feel free to adopt and replicate our poster idea, if you promise to subscribe to the Phito newsletter 😎)
More than just provocation: who actually cares?
On a concluding note: these contrasting perspectives presented at these scientific venues were really meant as a gentle provocation to spark a discussion. Nonetheless, many of these concepts are based on actual findings from the Phito project. Did you know that among our 650+ interviewed farmers, erosion was systematically ranked as the least concern (even less than biodiversity) among farmers?
As mentioned, world leading soil scientists were asked what’s behind this different perspective on land degradation between Scientists and Farmers. After they wrote down their marks on the poster, they shared more about their views on the situation, and ideas for bridging the gap in the interactive board below. Be inspired!
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(last update: June 2025)