The Rural Voice, 1994-03, Page 27for Canadian farmers. Support for
training of about $9.5 million comes
from the federal government,
matched by the provincial
governments.
armers often play the roles of
F
inarketers, production
economists, financial
specialists, human resources
managers and strategic planners, says
Chuck Jacobs, executive director of
CFBMC. "It's difficult for an
individual to be successful at
all these tasks. The NFBMP
will make the knowledge of
these business-related areas
more widely available to farm
managers."
CFBMC will host the first
national farm business
management conference in
Ottawa, March 20-23. "It is
important to take the pulse of
the Canadian farmer on a
national scale because farm
business is changing with each
day and each new trade talk,"
said Rod Archibald, the
Bathurst, New Brunswick
farmer who is chair of
CFBMC. "We are expecting
over 200 people at our
conference and we expect to
have a better idea of where
business training is, or should be
going by the end of this century."
Among the speakers at the
conference will be futurist Frank
Ogden, GATT negotiator Mike
Gifford, communications specialist
Jerry White and federal Agriculture
Minister Ralph Goodale.
Nancy McGill, council director
for Ontario, says networking with
farm business people from other
provinces is important. "Other
provinces are very interested in the
tremendous resources we have in
Ontario for training farmers. But we
can get even more mileage from our
resources by teaming up with other
provinces in some projects."
Those farmers who aren't able to
attend the conference will no doubt
be able to find out more about it
through FMBInet. Information is
transferred across the country
through connecting the 10 BBS
systems in nine provinces (all but
Quebec) and Ottawa. The systems,
because of high telephone costs,
aren't connected at all times. Instead,
as midnight strikes in each time zone,
the provincial BBS begins dialing up
the other BBSs across the country,
taking advantage of the lower phone
rates. The BBS begin automatically
exchanging the information in their
files so that by the next morning all
share the most recent information
available, and any messages that
have been left for farmers elsewhere
in the country.
Interest in the network is growing
at a phenomenal pace, Thacker says.
"The average expansion rate is eight
new users a day and between 80 and
90 calls per day." As of December 1,
1993, the system had 1,600
registered users and had received
more than 17,000 calls.
While FMBInet is already a useful
tool for farmers, it will become a lot
so as time goes on, de Jong
says. For instance, the BBSs
have several shared public
message areas. Say you want
to get some information on
processing of agricultural
products and none of the files
from government agencies
seem to have the answer, you
can leave a message in the
message centre of the Ontario
BBS for AgriFood Processing
(the message centres are
called echoes), and some
other user of ;he network
anywhere in Canada, may
have the information you
need. FMBInet now has seven
echoes but some of the large
more established BBSs have
5000.
Starting to use FMBInet
isn't hard. There is no cost
except for your telephone bill. You
must, of course, have a modem on
your computer and the
communications software that allows
your computer to "talk" to others. If
you've just installed the modem you
should be familiar with the software
before you call in.
Once you're ready you simply
have to set your computer to call the
Ontario number (519) 767-3198.
When the connection is made you'll
be greeted by the FMBInet-ON logo
and asked for your name. First-time
callers will be asked a series of
questions including your city and
province, what type of system you
are using and ask you to give a
password.
Once you are logged in, the BBS
asks if you want to check mail
messages left for you. You can get
your messages then or have them
stored for later. After that the BBS
checks to see if there are any new
bulletins posted since you called the
last time. If there are they will come
up on a list and you can choose to
read those you might want.
more
FMBInet is one of the services of
the Canadian Farm Business
Management Council
farm
FBMInet is an outgrowth of a
project started by the Alberta
department of agriculture back in
1984. The program got national
financing last year through CFBMC.
Largest use of the program remains
in Alberta, de Jong says but by
Nationwide the
FMBInet
service has 1600
users
February there were about 200 users
of FMBInet in Ontario.
David Thacker, national co-
ordinator of FMBInet, doesn't expect
farmers to rush out and buy a
computer just so they can access the
network, but he says a growing
number of farmers are using
computers as part of their business.
Adding a modem, for as little as $80,
might be a worthwhile investment, he
said.
MARCH 1994 23