The PEI COPC is currently seeking Requests for Proposals to provide farmer training on:
Small farm recordkeeping, data management & profitability analysis
Among one group of PEI COPC members, namely market gardeners and new small farm entrants, there is felt to be insufficient capacity for accurate financial record keeping and profitability analysis. This is not uncommon amongst new entrants in highly diversified agriculture.
The PEI COPC would like to provide assistance to this group of its members in addressing this issue, and thereby in increasing farmer capacity for effective business management, by hiring one or several individuals as a team on a contractual basis to (1) carry out training in record keeping, data management and profitability analysis (business coaching/mentorship) in a first instance, and (2) to benchmark the farm performance of several participating members for the 2016 growing season, identifying strengths, risks, and vulnerabilities in a second phase of this project.
It is foreseen that the first project phase would take the form of a group workshop in December 2015, and would provide tangible, concrete tools/knowledge for subsequent use by the participating farmers on their farms. In the second phase, the following winter (2016/2017), farmers will be supported in assessing profitability and making decisions about their business using the data collected during the 2016 growing season. Farmers will be guided to collect data pertinent to their cost of production for the 2016 growing season, possibly using software solutions or customized spreadsheets, such as FarmData (an open source option: https://farmdata.dickinson.edu/guest.php) or similar.
In addition to providing participating farmers with knowledge and experience using appropriate and accessible record keeping and data management systems, questions to be addressed through the project include:
- In what ways are our small, diverse farms profitable?
- In what ways are they not profitable?
- Where can financial profitability be improved to increase the sustainability of these enterprises.
- What can this information tell us about best practices for small scale diversified agriculture on PEI?
In seeking eligible individual(s) to carry out such training and benchmarking, those interested are asked to please send their CV with letter of intent and an outline of the proposed workshop and subsequent benchmarking activities, including an estimated budget of all associated costs (material, logistic, salary/stipend for the organizer/presenter(s), etc.) to research [at] organicpei [dot] com by November 1, 2015.
Please do not hesitate to email Stephanie Palmer at the above email address, or to call at (902) 894-9999 to further discuss this request or ideas related to your proposal.
Thank you!