Agricultural producers, processors and agri-business owners have a new risk management tool.
RiskChoices, developed by Alberta Agriculture, was created to be able to monitor and adjust to agricultural uncertainties, such as tight profit margins, variable weather and international trade issues.
The program consists of an instruction folder and a series of worksheets and charts that guide producers and agri-business owners through various steps of risk identification and management in easy-to-understand English.
“This approach is extremely flexible. It is especially valuable in situations where there is insufficient data or when the goal is to identify, measure and manage strategic risk, ” said Ted Darling, business risk management specialist with Alberta Agriculture, in a News release
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While this approach to risk assessment and management is new to agriculture, it has been used by the oil and gas, accounting and high-tech sectors for years.
Most people know this process already because it’s intuitive, said Dean Dyck, financial business analyst with Alberta Agriculture in Red Deer.
“A lot of people have done this before in their heads. But this way you put it on paper, and when you start putting it on paper with the format that we’ve got, it gives you a better idea how to manage the risk,” said Dyck.
“In agriculture, we’ve always talked about risk as far as production risk. But really, when it comes to any of the other risks, we’ve just skimmed the surface a little bit.
“This process gets people thinking about different types of risk.”
This program follows on the success of the innovative CropChoices, a numbers-oriented crop risk planning software produced by the department two years ago.
This new risk management tool can be downloaded from the Alberta Agriculture website at www.agric.gov.ab.ca or a paper copy can be requested from the business management innovations branch in Olds, Alta., at 403-556-4240.
