Despite the lip service governments pay to value-added agriculture, there is little support for small, on-farm grain processors, say farmers and academics.
“We haven’t tapped into any government programs either financial or anything else,” said Tony Marshall, a producer-turned entrepreneur from Aldersyde, Alta.
While programs, incentives and expertise are available for bigger value-added projects like ethanol plants and feedlots, government help is sparse when it comes to farm-direct marketing ventures. Even finding a government contact can prove difficult.
Alberta Agriculture has a small ag-entrepreneurship division that includes a farm-direct marketing expert.
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But Marshall said the new department is playing catch-up and isn’t much help to businesses like his.
“We’re almost a little bit ahead of the wave as far as the government assistance,” he said.
Manitoba Agriculture has an agri-ventures specialist on staff but there is no dedicated position in Saskatchewan or in the federal agriculture bureaucracy.
The lack of government interest in small-scale, value-added projects perplexes Marshall.
But the director of the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives at the University of Saskatchewan said it is to be expected.
“Our bureaucracies and our programs and our institutions are really geared to big volume production and commodities,” said Brett Fairbairn.
It’s a challenge for governments to develop policies that are flexible enough to include small, specialized value-added projects, he added.
But while there is little in the way of government manpower, there is some financial assistance available to farm-direct marketers. The main source is the Canadian Adaptation and Rural Development fund.
Perry Robinson got support from that fund and the Saskatchewan Agri-Food Equity Fund when he commercialized his durum-based chips in 1997.
The money was supposed to help Robinson market his Rinkles snack food, but the venture failed because he didn’t have the clout to get shelf space with grocery chains. Robinson thinks there is a more effective way for governments to help farmers add value to their raw product rather than simply providing money.
“They should spend every nickel that they’ve got to spend on setting up their own marketing agency,” he said.
But other farm-direct marketers recoil at that suggestion.
“That’s the typical agricultural mindset (to say), ‘we’re production oriented, let somebody else worry about marketing it,'” said Marshall.
He contends that farmers who want to get into the value-added business must set aside that “bushels per acre” mentality and learn how to sell what they produce.
Instead of dipping their fingers into marketing, governments should focus on providing targeted technical support and expertise to farm-direct marketers, he said.
Harley Olsen, Saskatchewan director for Agriculture Canada’s market and industry services branch, said that type of help is on the way. Consulting and training assistance for farm-based value-added projects will be one component of the new era in farm policy.
“Those kinds of initiatives are certainly under the renewal piece of the agricultural policy framework,” Olsen said.
