INTERNATIONAL FARM MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION CONGRESS 2024
During July, Bec Dean from the Wagga Wagga office attended the 24th International Farm Management Association (IFMA) Congress in Saskatoon, Canada, supported by the IFMA Professional Development Fund. The theme of the Congress was Resilience Through Innovation, which was broken down into sub-categories of resilience. In addition, time was spent touring Canadian farms and a First Nations Reserve, where strategic planning was undertaken. The main messages from the Congress focused on the fundamentals of resilience and essentially sustainability of farming into the future.
The Canadian Agricultural Industry in context:
Increased productivity is the single most important step towards meeting both food production and environmental gaps.
In Canada, the ratio of farmland value to crop receipts has been trending upward. Similarly to Australia, the trend is resulting in a lower feasibility of land area expansion, without an existing asset to spread costs across. The ratio imbalance is also a major component of succession, as is finding realistic economies of scale.
Succession of farm businesses is a major risk factor to the agricultural industry.
Long-term leasing of farms is relatively common practice.
Canadian agriculture productivity growth has reached a plateau and is now slowing down. In other words, the low hanging fruit to increase productivity gains have been managed. The future will likely require more, smaller efficiency gains to continue growth. The compounding affect of small gains is not to be underestimated.
Innovation and introducing different ways of doing things, should help extend the possible production frontier.
Resilient Institutions
Institutions can remain resilient by; implementing regular strategic planning, remembering their core mission, responding, plus investing in human and other associated capital.
Resilient Ecosystems
Regenerative agriculture is essentially a form of indigenous agriculture.
Economic and social resilience is required for environmental resilience.
Resilient Farm Businesses
Canadian net farm income hasn’t increased in proportion to increased exports.
Higher probability of financial success, requires informed management decisions, which requires strong financial analyses, which in turn requires relevant financial ratios, derived from accurate standardised data.
Financial literacy is severely lacking amongst farmers.
When farmers don’t have a good understanding of their Cost of Production and overstate it through guessing, they do not sell at a profit, but often wait for a higher price than is required, exhausting mental capacity and reducing overall profitability.
Many farm owners don’t understand the different financial reports and why some are required for tax in comparison to financials needed for decision making.
Resilience is a farm’s ability to anticipate, absorb, accommodate, or recover from effects of shocks or stresses in a timely manner.
Four resiliency rules that should be embedded in businesses include understanding their; why, focus, value and strategy.
Agility refers to a farm’s ability to quickly identify and capture business opportunities.
Absorption capacity refers to a farm’s ability to withstand shocks from strategic risks.
To advance one’s vision closer to tomorrow, one must make decisions today as if they are the best decision at the time, regardless of the result.
Good people and businesses attract good people.
Urgency can be difficult to introduce to non-farming people. It’s a challenge of involving people with a non-agricultural background into businesses. This is something the industry may need to work on.
Resilient Farm Families
Thriving in the face of adversity involves making sense out of adversity to build resilience.
Resilience is a skill people can learn and increase.
Purpose, connection and well-being are fundamental for resilience.
To transition from an identity in farming to one outside of it, it can help if people can still show up and make a difference. Part of it is understand oneself and the many hats worn, so that these can all be honoured. Then if one changes, one can still find purpose from another hat.