Farm business management has been a focus of colleges, universities, financial institutions and provincial ministries since the late 1970s. Over the past 25 years much has been written, formulated and researched in this area. Unfortunately, accessing and leveraging information has been a significant challenge for producers.

The AgriBusiness eCampus is our response to this challenge, providing a much-needed resource centre in agribusiness management and entrepreneurism.

The ABeCampus is derived from and likewise anchored in partnership. Its success is dependent upon partnering with organizations that are like-minded in terms of offering services and/or education in agricultural business management for rural development. The ABeCampus is committed to exploring ways to work together, sharing resources (including the academic content of current learning tools) and developing memorandums of understanding for joint or shared activities in the development and distribution of agricultural management educational resources for farmers and producers.

The AgriBusiness eCampus is managed and administered by the Kemptville Campus Business Development Centre, under the guidance of an Advisory Committee. Advisory Committee members represent government, non-government, industry, academic and producer (target learner) stakeholder groups.

The AgriBusiness eCampus resides at the Business Development Centre of the University of Guelph Kemptville Campus. Kemptville Campus operates as a regional campus of the Ontario Agricultural College (OAC). Established in 1874, OAC is a founding college of the University of Guelph. Today, the University of Guelph ranks as Canada’s top comprehensive research university, recognized for its research and leadership in the fields of education, agriculture, business management, as well as online learning.

The Kemptville Campus Business Development Centre develops and delivers high quality workshops, training seminars, specialty courses, as well as certificate and apprenticeship programs at the request of and in collaboration with individual clients, organizations, and industries.

In order to initially validate the scope and operational features of the AgriBusiness eCampus, the project launched an industry-wide survey. Producers and advisors identified the greatest need for educational training and information resources in five subject areas: Strategic and Business Planning, Succession Planning, Domestic and Global Marketing, Commodity Marketing and Human Resource Management. Initially, the ABeC program will focus on these five subject areas, however business planning for 2008 includes expansion into additional topic areas.

On behalf of the AgriBusiness eCampus team, we'd like to extend a big thanks to all those involved in the Official Launch of the program that took place at Canada's Outdoor Farm Show.

Special thanks to our guest speaker, Aileen McNeil, Director of Agricultural Development for the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA). To view her speech, click here.