JANUARY 2018 • COUNTRY LIFE IN BC


17 Risk assessment research gets funding boost


Consultations with producers underway


by PETER MITHAM ABBOTSFORD – When ranchers began to


rebuild in the aftermath of the wildfires that swept across BC this past summer, many were rebuilding from scratch. The fires had left nothing, a scenario seldom considered in most risk assessment exercises. And even if total loss ranked among the possibilities, was it sufficiently probable to make insurance worthwhile? Most farmers would have said no, which


is why the success of efforts to extend AgriRecovery funding to extraordinary losses from the fires were hailed as a landmark success. Now, a new round of federal funding is helping producers review their risks and identify strategies – financial and otherwise – to help manage them. “Government is trying to shift some of that


burden away from themselves and onto industry… so they’re providing research and development funds,” says Gary Falk, a consultant to the BC Agriculture Council and formerly executive director with BC's business risk management branch prior to his retirement in August 2016. The council received $124,000 at the end of


November through Ottawa’s AgriRisk initiatives program under Growing Forward 2, and industry groups will match it with $62,000 of cash and in-kind support. Participants include the greenhouse, nursery, cattle, grain and blueberry sectors. While some sectors, like grain, feel they’re adequately served by existing risk management programs, Falk said smaller commodities often


response to Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica). “You’ve got the [Canadian Food


Inspection Agency] that identifies whether or not those pests exist but after that, they’re on their own to resolve those issues,” says Falk. “They feel like they’re out there on their own quite a bit; they’ve got a lot of risk. … It has a huge financial hit.”


Consultations underway Discussions with up to 15 producers


from each commodity group usually last five hours and assess the potential financial impact of key areas of risk, including production, market, environmental, climate change and social licence.


The discussions provide Falk with FILE PHOTO


require a more customized framework. “The big programs don’t work very well for them,”


he says. “The attempt here with this project is to raise the awareness: what are the risks that need to be managed, and what type of strategies could you employ to manage those risks?” While many producers are on top of the risks, some risks simply aren’t covered. Returns on blueberries, for example, frequently


reflect quality but standard crop insurance programs only cover losses, not low quality. This means producers may find themselves caught short on income even if yields are normal because growing conditions have impacted fruit quality. Producers in the nursery sector deal with market access risks, such as quarantines other countries, such as the US, may impose on incoming product in


direction for his final report, due at the end of March 2018, which will establish a foundation for a generic risk assessment tool of use not only to individual producers but sectors other than those participating in the study.


Abbotsford blueberry grower Jason Smith said the initiative is important, regardless of whether or not it leads to new tools. “There could be tools already out there that could be modified,” he says. Weather derivatives, which have been examined in Ontario for ice wine producers, are an example of a tool for managing weather-related production risks in blueberries that aren’t covered by existing programs. Raising awareness of the risks that need to be managed and how to manage them is a first step towards choosing the right tool for the job and boosting resilience, however. “It’s trying to get them thinking that way,” says


Falk. “The producers are quite good at coming up with some solutions.”


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