COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • OCTOBER 2018
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Small farmers network targets knowledge gap LEPS asks farmers to determine what is needed in a network for resource sharing
by RONDA PAYNE
LANGLEY – The average age of farmers is increasing and with fewer of their children picking up the keys to the tractor, lifetimes of experience and information are being lost. New farmers, meanwhile, often have to start small in order to make a go of their business. There is a gap between what small-scale farmers are trying to do and what they need to know. “People talk a lot about how difficult it is to be a farmer and all the challenges that farmers face, but it wasn’t until I started farming with my husband last fall that it became really obvious, really quickly, how much support farmers need,” says Ava Reeve, agriculture program co-ordinator with Langley Environmental Partners Society (LEPS). To help fill the information gap,
Reeve is creating the Small Farm Network. She wants farmers in Langley and beyond to complete an online survey to identify their top information needs. The survey, which closes at the end of October, is available at [
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ J836Q26]. “The key thing about this program is that we want the farmers to be involved – with opportunities for them to benefit from each other’s knowledge but also to direct the program,” she says.
Marcel Sachse of Pinsch of Soil Farm in Langley says he would have benefitted from the small farm network being created by the Langley Environmental Partners Society. RONDA PAYNE PHOTO
“We’re not telling farmers what they need, we’re asking them, and we’ll plan our workshops, tours and other offerings based directly on what the farmers want. “I know farmers often have resources, they’ve
discovered something themselves or they have expertise, so they’d be able to share those resources
with others.” One farmer Reeve has
interacted with is Marcel Sachse of Langley’s Pinsch of Soil Farm. “There’s a lot of knowledge out
there in the community,” he says. “I had the benefit of being
involved in another farm before,” he says. “But, I think for us, it would have been good to have someone who knew how to lay out the land.”
He adds that understanding soil health, quantities in relation to planting and how to sell the resulting produce would have also been helpful. There are issues many new farmers struggle with, not just on the production side but business basics like accounting, sales and marketing. “There is so much to know,”
says Reeve. “Naturally, there are going to be gaps where farmers who can answer every other question don’t have the specific expertise or resources to know which abattoirs will do small orders, how best to file farm taxes, or what to do about the
invasive plants taking over their squash row.” While the program is geared to farmers in
Langley, Reeve says any farmer in BC can participate in the survey and join the Facebook group, Langley Small Farm Network. Workshops will launch in November, and all are welcome to participate.
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