Crop Management
Quality Assurance & Corn Production
by David Morris
To succeed in the
future, farmers will have to adopt different ways of thinking about their business
and what is important to its success. In his presentation to the OCPA Convention,
Brent VanKoughnet of Agri Skills Inc., a farm-based consulting company near Carmen,
Manitoba, said that will be the only way for producers to get off the low-priced
‘commodity treadmill’. He believes that cash crop farmers will have
to stop seeing themselves as producers of grains and oilseeds, and begin to think
of themselves as suppliers of specific traits and functional compounds. Farmers
will have to begin to think of their business, not as crop production, but as
‘custom service’.
Brent highlighted four forces that he sees propelling agriculture and agricultural
markets in this direction:
• science and technology
• information and communication technology
• consumer power
• globalization.
Science and technology have given processors the ability to extract and refine
specific functional compounds from agricultural products. Science has also given
researchers the ability to insert new functional traits into plants and animals.
Brent sees the ability to consistently produce high quality products bearing high
concentrations of these traits as being one of the prerequisites for farmers to
succeed in the future.
Information and communication technology has linked people together as never before.
The Internet has broken down traditional patterns of information flow and commerce,
allowing producers and consumers to communicate and deal directly with and among
one another. The result is a consumer network that is highly informed (or in some
cases, misinformed) about nutrition and food safety. As they become more aware
of potential health or safety concerns (real or imagined), consumers become more
exacting in their expectations.
As a group, consumers have become powerful and demanding. If they can’t get
exactly what they want, they will take their business elsewhere or they won’t
buy at all. Because consumers are generally uneasy or anxious about food safety
and health, they are increasingly demanding assurance that their foods are produced
safely. Consumer influence on government and corporate policies in this regard
is increasing.
Quality standards are becoming globalized. The highest standard in the world quickly
becomes the expectation everywhere.
VanKoughnet described how the marketplace is also becoming more segmented, with
a growing number of niche markets for crop varieties with unique properties and
precise quality standards. By definition, each of these markets will be small
and will be met by a small number of producers, growing proprietary varieties.
These crops will be produced on contract within a strict identity-preserved system
to maintain product purity and quality throughout the entire food chain. Because
of the relatively small volumes involved, blending to upgrade lower quality crops
will not be an option. Rather, the system will include mechanisms to identify
the source of quality or safety problems and to hold accountable those who were
responsible. Whoever caused the problem will be the one held liable to pay for
it.
In such a system, where saying ‘Sorry’ won’t be good enough, no
farmer will be able to afford mistakes. They will have to be prevented or corrected
before the crop leaves the farm. This will necessitate a change in how quality
assurance is provided.
Historically, food quality standards in Canada have been enforced through monitoring
and testing. However, testing is a costly approach even now, and costs will become
prohibitive as niche markets proliferate and quality standards become more precisely
defined and comprehensive. In addition, consumer advocacy groups are saying that
no testing program can be thorough enough and reliance on testing alone is not
sufficient. They want quality assurance built in throughout the entire food system,
not just added on at the end. They expect agriculture to mirror what they themselves
are applying in their workplaces. Whether they’re in manufacturing, health
services or food services, more and more people are required to follow strictly
defined quality assurance procedures and to document that they do. Not surprisingly,
they expect that farmers should be able to do the same. In other words, they expect
food quality assurance to move from a testing-based system to one based on ‘process
control’.
Thus, in the marketplace of the future, product purity and safety will be assured
by doing everything properly. Producers will be held accountable and liable for
following proper practices and procedures for what they do as well as for proving
that they have done so with thorough documentation.
Process control is the most reliable way to assure that the crops you produce
meet the required standards, because everyone must do everything right, as much
as is humanly possible. To implement process control, you must understand your
production system well enough to identify where potential safety or quality problems
could arise and develop clear management strategies to prevent or correct them
on the farm. And you must understand your quality assurance system well enough
to explain it to potential buyers and consumers.
According to VanKoughnet, farmers should not look on process control as just another
burden they have to bear. Rather, it offers opportunities to improve your ways
of doing business. It is a tool for improved profitability, because the best practices
for quality assurance are also the best production practices. Through process
control, producers who demonstrate premium management and deliver premium quality
products will gain access to premium markets at premium prices.
