Regarding apprentices there are some
problems:
q Long term commitment
q Expectations regarding type of work and pay
q Farmers using apprentices as replacement for labour
q Low rate of pay unfeasible for young people paying off student loans
q Low % of turnouts end up working in the community or in agriculture
q Students wanting a more enriched experience
q Need for some type of curriculum / formal program
q Students want more benefit from their time on the farm
q Taking a share in the produce sales can enhance motivation
q Need for long term mentoring and work potential
q Bridging programs
q No where to go after apprenticing
q Need to be educated about the real benefits or farming (not
necessarily monetary)
q A well developed program could turn out growers that bring back
benefit to the community
q It could also provide credibility to the new grower who would have
experience in all aspects of growing scientific, technical, business,
marketing, networking, ecological, business planning, approaching institutions
q Co-operative land sharing and shared tenure farming for apprentices
could boost (dbl) production on the farm increasing the volume of food produced
on a given farm …. Time and manpower
being the big barrier to expansion… needing to fit the market demand but how?
q More food to into the market by shared farming
q Farmers on Vancouver Island have the potential to grow winter crops
q How about sharing their land if they want to farm in the summer
allow a relationship with another farmer to grow winter crops on their land
q Farmers provide the infrastructure, training, venue to farm
q Commitment increases, chances of long term relationships due to the
fact that emerging growers can see themselves potentially farming for a
living.
q Development of a diploma or formal program with clear deliverables
q Training for farmers who are involved in the program, materials
available to them, university support, community linkages
Community Training programs in Victoria
are usually non-profit and rely on government money and fund raising
q There have been drastic reductions both provincially and federally
in the number and types of programs that are being funded and the requirements
q There is little or no money available for core funding in these
programs which means that staff and management do not have guaranteed incomes
q Stressing the organization
q Compromising the programs
q Limiting the outreach
q Limiting the development of new and innovative programming and IT
applications
q Need for more community level $
q Need for corporate fund raising
q Collaborative effort
q When groups work in Isolation and focus solely on there funding
sources they limit the …….
q Protectionism amongst groups
q Need to expand the sector by working together
UBC / Camosun courses vs. Community based
programs for delivery of training and apprenticing
q Infrastructure
q Funding
q Time to develop curriculum
q Need linkages
q Partnership
UBC vs. FarmFolk
q
No comments:
Post a Comment