A snapshot of program status mid year 2006
Like any successful business, the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company (AEFP) measures its progress throughout the year.
"The bottom line for our company, and the reason we were set up as a non-profit company in the first place, is to get producers using EFPs to make progress on their farms and ranches and also for their industry," says Mike Slomp, executive director of AEFP.
"Most companies use dollars of profit as the primary measure of success. We also use numbers to measure our success," he says. "Here's a look at the numbers we use and our success, and yours as producers, to mid-year 2006."
Each EFP starts with the producer attending a free workshop. The total number of participants in workshop one is the simplest, purest measure of progress. These numbers are a sign of people having enough initial interest to take the first step to an EFP.
Just over 4,100 producers across the province have taken the first step and attended workshop one for the period of April 2005 to May 2006. Since the program's inception in 2002, workshop one participants number 6,814. This represents approximately 10 percent of the farm units in the province.
"People walk through the door for whatever reason; advertising, word of mouth, access to funding or to do the right thing on their farms," says Slomp. "The first workshop is important because it is the only way to get to the next step."
Workshop two is the next step in the process and also the next measure of progress. "It's where farmers and ranchers return, usually after working through the workbook, to share their ideas with other farmers and technical assistants to build a prioritized plan to address the risks they identified through completing the workbook," says Slomp.
"The number of participants in workshop two indicates continued interest in the program and represents those producers who are serious about the process and the outcomes of completing a plan," he adds.
Nearly 5, 500 farmers and ranchers have returned to workshop two over the life of the program.
The ultimate sign of success is in the number of 'reviewed plans.' An EFP is reviewed when it is anonymously submitted to a peer review panel. The review committee, created from local producers who have completed an EFP, will deem the plan appropriate when it adequately addresses the risks brought forward into the action plan.
"Interestingly, this stage of the process is viewed by many producers as the most productive because it is a common sense review by peers that closely resembles the coaching process popular in business circles today," says Slomp. The review committee members will make suggestions and recommendations back to the participant to help with implementation of beneficial management practices (BMPs).
To date, 3,643 EFPs have been reviewed and deemed appropriate, of these, 2,896 were completed in the 14 months from April 2005 to May 2006.
Another measure of success is the funding support numbers associated with the Canada Alberta Farm Stewardship Program (CAFSP). This program supports farmers and ranchers who have completed an EFP by providing access to funds for on-farm environmental improvements. Up to $30,000 per farm is available for BMP projects.
Twenty-six categories of environmental farm improvements are currently eligible for CAFSP funding, covering the majority of possible improvements. Thanks to this program, Alberta producers have spent over $10 million on nearly 1,000 BMP projects and have been reimbursed almost $4 million from CAFSP.
"The success we've seen is due to many factors," says Slomp. "Hopefully, in part, it means we are using the right approaches, hiring the right people and training them appropriately. A big factor is we have been able to attract many high quality corporate partners who are able to carry the message to their members.
"But perhaps the biggest big factor in our success is a general commitment by farmers and ranchers to get involved and do the right thing for environmental stewardship on their operation."
"We will continue to measure success by these numbers," says Slomp. "And we will share these numbers on the Web site www.albertaEFP.com and in other communication materials we produce."
This article is reprintable with credit to AEFP as follows "Reprinted courtesy of the Alberta Environmental Farm Plan Company; www.albertaEFP.com".
