JFAO to Feature David Boone Speaking about Experiences of New Farm Entrant Program In Webinar [Nov 20, 2012]
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
Farms.com is working with the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario (JFAO) to provide a webinar featuring David Boone, Executive Vice President and Regional Manager of Farm Credit East – FarmStart to review “Experiences of Farm Credit East – New Farm Entrants” as part of a study to examine some of the issues facing new farmers in the province of Ontario
With the average age of Canadian farmers now at 54, it’s become more pivotal for rural youth organizations such as the Junior Farmers Association of Ontario – who seek to promote agriculture and awareness of rural life while cultivating leadership skills for individuals to contribute to their communities, to identify some of the barriers facing young farmers today.
The JFAO has received funding of $53,500 to identify some of these issues facing new farmers in the province and Farms.com is working with the organization to conduct a survey to gather information from new entrant farmers in order to identify some of the key barriers that that they face while trying to enter the farming industry. The funding was made possible by the federal government through the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP).
As part of the study process, JFAO will be hosting a guest presenter who will be speaking about a successful U.S. program called FarmStart that provides new farmers with seed capital up to $50,000 to start up a farming business or a cooperative. The JFAO would like to invite those interested to join them today in a webinar to learn more about this innovative lending program available to new entrant farmers in the U.S.
The following are the details and coordinates to join the webinar:
When: Tuesday November 20, 2012
Time: 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Location: Farms.com Guelph office located at 50 Royal Road, Unit A
Guelph Ontario (Tel: 1.888.248.4893)
Join the webinar by logging in as follows:
Join Link: https://farms.ilinc.com/join/cmzhvff/zmrmxsts
1-888-447-7153
Passcode: 9912469
It is recommended to join the meeting 10 minutes before the start time to ensure that the meeting starts in a timely fashion. You are invited to confirm your attendance by emailing Denise Faguy.
The survey is still open until Nov. 30, 2012. All new entrants are invited to complete the JFAO survey at:
(http://formtool.farms.com/admin/userSurveys.cfm?surveyid=448&requesttimeout=600)
If you are unsure if you are considered a new entrant -the definition of new entrants for this project has been defined by two distinct groups or streams:
• Farmers new to the agriculture industry
• Farmers who have experience/knowledge of the industry, but lack farm ownership experience