Alberta's agriculture industry requires more public support to succeed

Global learning trip highlights the need for increased public support in Alberta’s agriculture industry.  

Farming Smarter's Executive Director brings insight and passion from around the world to inspire public pride in Alberta's agricultural industry. The most important factor for success Ken Coles discovered on his Nuffield Scholarship self-direct study was the people.

“Canada’s ag innovation system is broken, yet it’s such a critical piece to our economy and to our culture that I would love to motivate reinvestment and a new consideration for it to be valued,” he comments. 

Nuffield Scholarships allow passionate agricultural professionals to travel around the world to learn about innovative practices they can adopt at home. This opportunity allowed Coles to tour agriculture facilities across:  

• Ireland 

• United Kingdom 

• France 

• New Zealand 

• Zimbabwe 

“The biggest takeaway that I learned on my trip, no matter where I was, is that people are the key to success,” says Coles. “If you have people who care about what they’re doing, and are passionate about it, they will find ways to achieve success.”

“We are losing that capacity, we are losing that passion, and we are losing that big picture, public good perspective that's needed to drive our agricultural industry forward,” he adds. 

“I would love to see more people from the public talk to an MLA saying, ‘Hey, we want to make sure Alberta agriculture is well supported.’ And more people support our agriculture industry with their purchase choices, like what’s happening now from because of Trump,” Coles states.

The growing difficulty of building recognition and maintaining a meaningful impact as a non-profit organization inspired his Nuffield journey. He set off to find non-profit organizations that help farmers innovate like Farming Smarter. Unfortunately, the problems he experienced at home were all too common around the world. 

As a result, he shifted the focus of his study to align with this reality, exploring innovation systems around the world to learn how they impact on-farm innovation. 

“I think agriculture is a public good and it requires significant public investment,” Coles claims. “We need more people taking an interest in agriculture, taking pride in it, recognizing that it's an important piece of our of our country, and that it needs to be supported publicly.” 

The most impressive and complete organization Coles visited had its head office nestled within a former British castle in the republic of Ireland. Teagasc (“Chaigus”) receives nearly €160 million every year in federal funding to support its diverse research and extension efforts throughout the little island nation. 

“It was shocking to me to see such a big and all-encompassing organization dedicated to agriculture that seemingly had lots of support from its federal government,” Coles comments. 

“All the things that we used to have, until decades of cuts basically dismantled it all, they were building. Even weirder was that Teagasc started in 1989, so they were building while we were cutting,” he adds.  

Teagasc is well-equipped with extension capacity and services to share the results of their research with farmers. Agricultural extension bridges the gap between research and practice through a variety of programs to educate and train farmers and agronomists.   

“I asked someone at Teagasc how they evaluate their programs and how they know that it’s impactful. He told me, ‘Oh, that’s easy. All we do is go to the border of Northern Ireland,’ and because it’s the same island, there’s literally a line where you can see the differences in farming practices on either side,” reflects Coles. Compelling evidence of impact and value is critical to maintaining public and government support for programs.  

The experience reignited Coles’ passion for advocating for Alberta’s agricultural industry, but it also confirmed one of his greatest worries. Politics have an incredible impact on agriculture, which can cripple entire economies as in Zimbabwe.  

Zimbabwe was a monumental experience for Coles as he witnessed the enduring resolve of the farming spirit. The breadbasket of Africa was quickly transformed through a sweeping land reform in the early 2000s. Agricultural land was seized by the government and redistributed, the majority of which was divided into 6-hectare parcels. The massive reduction in agriculture productivity that followed led to a decade of hyperinflation, food insecurity and the emigration of 11 million people.  

Inspired by the perseverance witnessed at farming operations in Zimbabwe, Coles has used the experience to advocate for strong agricultural policy from the Alberta and Canadian governments to propel the industry forward. He wants more people to be as proud of southern Alberta’s agricultural industry as he is.

To learn more about his Nuffield trip, Ken Coles invites you to read his report linked below.

Or contact him personally with any questions or inquires about what he learned while traveling the world:

Contact Information:
Ken Coles, Executive Director
(403) 317-0757
ken@farmingsmarter.com