Farm succession, diversification and value chains are among study topics for this year’s Nuffield agricultural scholarship winners.
Each year, Nuffield Canada awards three scholarships of $15,000 to Canadians aged 25 to 40 with a passion for agriculture.
The recipients are expected to travel for at least eight weeks and complete studies within two years.
Leona Dargis of St. Vincent, Alta., and Kelvin Meadows of Moose Jaw, Sask., are this year’s prairie winners, along with Raymond Loo of Springfield, P.E.I.
Dargis plans to travel to New Zealand and Australia in March, and continue her research into succession planning and diversification on the family farm.
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She grew up on a family farm with four sisters, growing grain and raising cattle.
In 2007, her parents were killed in a small plane crash in northern Alberta, leaving the sisters to deal with the succession-related issues as well as run the farm and continue with their schooling. Sharing the workload around the farm and house was nothing new for them.
“Everyone was expected to contribute from an early age,” said Dargis. “In fact, we’d hear people in the community saying we worked too hard.”
Dargis graduated from Olds Community College, where she was introduced to a wide range of opportunities, both in Canada and abroad.
She joined the Canadian Young Farmers for three years, then became a member of the Royal Agricultural Societies of the Commonwealth, which sponsored her trips to New Zealand and Scotland last summer. It was on those trips where she learned about the Nuffield award.
After completing Nuffield studies, she intends to do a series of public speaking engagements on her travels, succession planning and her family story.
Meadows has been running a seed cleaning and export business as well as growing pedigreed seed for 20 years.
During that time, he has served as a director and chair of the Saskatchewan Canola Development commission. He is also chair of Avena Foods Inc., a gluten-free oat milling plant in Regina.
He plans to use the Nuffield scholarship to study factors that contribute to a successful farmer-owned value chain and a sustainable farm workforce.
He plans to travel to New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Western Europe and the United States.
