Ministry of Agriculture and Lands
Agri-Food Futures Fund
The Agri-Food Futures Fund (“AFFF” or “Futures Fund”) is a joint federal / provincial initiative within the Canada – British Columbia Framework Agreement on Agricultural Risk Management.
- Overview
- Purposes
- Access to the Futures Fund
- Principles / Guidelines for Use of the Funds
- Administration
- Results
- Further Information & Contact
- Strategic Planning Guide for Groups Applying to the Agri-Food Futures Fund (Futures Fund). pdf document
Overview
In harmony with the objectives of the British Columbia government, the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , the Futures Fund has these priorities for the agri-food industry:
- strengthen agri-food organisations and give rural communities more power to shape their futures;
- accelerate the pace of innovation across the agri-food sector, facilitating adoption of new technology and development of new market opportunities and continuing to promote a strategic approach in all areas;
- facilitate a self-sustaining agri-food sector which leads, directs and finances its own industry development; and
- secure the future of the agri-food sector in British Columbia.
The Futures Fund is a trust fund, established in fiscal year 2000/01, with an initial capitalisation of $13.4 million. Contributions made in fiscal 2001/02 brought the total to $22.8 million. The term of the trust is 21 years, enabling the financing of multi-year development initiatives.
The creation of the Futures Fund builds on the ministry experience with Industry Development Trust Funds over the past decade. The primary advantages of the trust funds have come from the long-term, independent nature of the funding, and from giving industry groups themselves the authority for establishment of funding priorities, approval of initiatives, communication of the results to members, and full administration of all initiatives. This can result in stronger, more focused industry organisations, undertaking measures for the self funding of not just the organization, but also sector development, including seeking partnerships with suppliers, researchers, funding programs and others to lever their own funds to the optimum.
The role of the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands (BCMAL) is to provide support to the organisations in establishing an appropriate direction, and assisting them in achieving the best results. The Futures Fund is another step along the road toward an agri-food industry which ultimately leads, manages and finances its own industry development, exclusive of government.
The trustee and administrator of the Futures Fund is the British Columbia Investment Agriculture Foundation (BCIAF), a non-profit agriculture and agri-food industry body mandated to facilitate change and foster growth in the agri-food industry. The BCIAF board is composed primarily of agri-food industry representatives with added ex-officio members from BCMAL and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
Purposes
The Futures Fund is for specific purposes, relating to development and sustainability of the agri-food industry in BC. The specific purposes are:
- facilitating growth and development of emerging sectors;
- diversifying, and achieving and maintaining stability of established sectors;
- maintaining farm and agri-food viability and productivity as operations integrate changing environmental values and adopt appropriate and responsible stewardship practices;
- facilitating growth and development in food and agriculture processing, and enhancing all aspects of food quality;
- improving food safety and acceptability to consumers, capitalising on a reputation of safe foods, humanely produced.
Access to the Futures Fund
The Futures Fund is designed to encourage a strategic approach to industry development, basing all funding on broad, clear strategies, developed and supported by proponents within the agri-food industry. Funding from the Futures Fund may be accessed by groups representing sectors or regions of the agri-food industry for any of the broad purposes of AFFF. Groups must have mid- to long-term strategic plans for their sectors or regions, and the plans must be accepted by the trustee as adequately inclusive, strategic and comprehensive. The funding provided by the Futures Fund is for the implementation of the plans.
Those sectors or regions which need to develop a plan may request BCMAL to help assemble a planning group which adequately represents the stakeholders, and assist in facilitating a 3-5 year plan for recommendation to the trustee.
The Futures Fund is open to all sector and regional agri-food industries which fall within the mandate and principles of the Canada – British Columbia Framework Agreement on Risk Management. However, the Minister of Agriculture and Lands has given priority to several specific initiatives:
- Integration and adoption of environmental values and practices,
- Developing a sustainable agri-food industry on Vancouver Island,
- Agritourism and direct farm marketing development,
- Development of the organics industry,
- Improving food quality and food safety,
- Development of nutraceuticals & specialty crops,
- Development of small lot / small scale agriculture,
- Agroforestry industry development,
- Diversifying and developing a First Nations agri-food industry,
- Mushroom industry sustainable development,
- Developing the apiculture industry,
- Addressing agriculture workforce issues,
- Developing opportunities for women in agriculture and agri-food,
- Develop food processing and agricultural value-added.
The proponent groups for these specific initiatives have three years, until March 31, 2004, to gain the trustee’s acceptance of a strategic plan for their sector or region. If a plan is not approved by that time, at the trustee’s discretion, the funds notionally allocated for the specific initiative may be directed to other purposes eligible under the trust agreement. The trustee may accept and fund the implementation of a strategic plan from groups not specified in the trust agreement provided there is an adequate unallocated balance in the Fund.
Principles/Guidelines for Use of the Funds
Types of activities which may be funded include research and development, training and education, technology development and transfer, market development, communications, and environmental enhancement.
All funding initiatives, programs or projects must comply with the principles of the Canada – British Columbia Framework Agreement on Agriculture Risk Management, the rules of the World Trade Organisation (agriculture) and the principles relating to the federal / provincial Companion Programs. These rules and principles support a very broad range of development activities, but generally prohibit lobbying of governments, export subsidisation, and direct payments to producers. Also, in all areas of agri-food, perhaps most notably the fish and forestry areas, qualifying initiatives are limited by the mandate of AAFC.
Cost sharing of all initiatives between governments and industry is a primary principle of the Futures Fund. As with the Industry Development Trust Funds, an industry contribution to a project is considered an affirmation of the project’s priority for industry. The requirement highlights, to all sectors of industry, the importance of creating or maintaining a mechanism for raising development funds from their members, to promote efforts for sectors to take charge of their industry development.
Decisions concerning the level of cost-sharing required for specific projects are based on the business case made in a strategic plan, the types of projects anticipated, and the breadth of the potential benefit to a sector or region. The target for cost sharing over time and over all types of projects is one dollar from industry matching one dollar from the Futures Fund.
Some sectors without self-funding mechanisms in place may legitimately be unable to generate much cost-share initially, and consideration may be given to a phase-in period to full cost sharing.
Administration
Industry groups themselves are accountable for implementation of their plan, once approved. A committee of industry representatives, with ex-officio members from BCMAL and AAFC, is established to conduct the on-going business of the group over the time span outlined in the plan. The committee will set priorities within the plan; approve and manage projects; seek partners and additional funding for initiatives; and administer the process, including monitoring of project costs and results and reporting to the trustee and the industry stakeholders.
The committee may hire or contract for resources to provide the administrative services. Established industry organisations may be beneficially involved, as is the case with the BC Agriculture Council contracted to provide management and administration for the Agriculture Environment Initiative. The BC Investment Agriculture Foundation is also available to offer administrative services in some circumstances.
Results
All strategic plans will identify a range of results expected from the proposed activities, and will outline indicators of success against the plan. The elements of this “performance framework” for the plan will be monitored by the industry committee, and regularly reported to the trustee. The trustee and BCMAL will follow progress, and continued funding for plan implementation will be dependent upon adequate results being achieved.
Further Information
For further information regarding the Futures Fund, contact the Investment Agriculture Foundation at 250-356-1662 or visit the website at http://www.iafbc.ca/index.htm.
Strategic Planning Guide (PDF, 86KB) for Groups Applying to the Agri-Food Futures Fund (Futures Fund).
All groups applying to the Agri-Food Futures Fund (Futures Fund) for financing need to submit a strategic plan to the British Columbia Investment Agriculture Foundation (the trustee of the Futures Fund), for their approval. This guide is designed to assist you, as members of an industry group, organization or steering committee, to gather the information you will need to develop a strategic plan for your sector, industry or region, that will meet the trustee's requirements
