An ag innovation group from Alberta says boards must focus on insight, foresight and oversight rather than the day-to-day
The governance of non-profit agricultural boards often requires dancing on a fine line of providing broad oversight without getting into the weeds of day-to-day operations.
Farming Smarter executive director Ken Coles said that without clarity about where that line is, it’s easy to miss the mark and wade into a morass of roles and responsibilities within an organizational structure.
“I don’t think people get excited about policy and governance in general, which is part of the problem,” said Coles. “But as you grow in your experience and realize that a lot of this is the foundation for how things run and how we collaborate amongst each other and how we achieve the goals that we’ve set out, then it becomes more important.”
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Farming Smarter is a Lethbridge-based non-profit that promotes innovation programs in the ag sector and accesses grants to help the industry. It is run by a board, which is mandated to have no less than half of its members be primary agricultural producers.
But attracting people to sit on governance boards can be difficult.
“I’ve been to commission meetings recently where they are short on directors, short on delegates so there is a bit of apathy going on in being part of governance. That’s a challenge as well as a motivator for us to come up to attract the right people to serve on these organizations,” Coles said.
“I think it’s important to invest in these groups because when they run effectively, I think they are more effective than government and one of the things I like to say is we can still have a public good but run efficiently like a private business.”
It can be challenging, however, to find those willing to sit on boards who will be able to balance the need for administrative independence with board oversight with Cole stating it’s time to revaluate that relationship.
“I can’t tell you how many board governance training sessions I have been through over the years and it’s always the same cookie cutter story and it’s never implemented in the right way,” he said, also stating boards can have a tendency to get into direct management rather than maintain an advisory capacity.
There needs to be a re-thinking of this approach, said Coles.
“There are three things a board should be involved in: insight, foresight and oversight,” he said. “That gives a concise and clear direction towards the role of boards and they need to be valued for what they know as opposed to what they do.”
Without that clarity, Coles said it can be unclear to other collaborative boards and commissions as to who is calling the shots in the organization.
“In agriculture, we really are our own worst enemies,” said Coles. “We can’t get along together enough to get a clear voice to government to get what we need and want. A lot of times we get in these organizational silos where they continue to do things the same way they always have and wonder why we are struggling.”
While having agricultural credentials within an ag board is essential, Coles said too often the skill sets from those outside of the farm are not taken advantage of.
“A lot of studies have shown how important board diversity is,” he said.
Farming Smarter has moved away from having its board fully comprising farmers, Coles said, and toward those a step away from on-farm operations.
That includes an accountant who specializes in farm operations, something that provides a different perspective.
Coles also challenged the idea that commissions that are funded by check-off dollars should remain solely farmer led.
“What’s more important, that it’s all farmer led or that it is providing value to the farmers?” asked Coles. “If there are other ways of doing that, that should be explored.”
Coles said recent changes in Alberta Marketing Council regulations, which allows the 20 producer organizations under its purview to create its own governance bylaws, will be helpful to reimagining how ag sector boards could work in the future.
