Management Challenges into the 21st Century: A North American Perspective

The face of North American Agriculture is changing, and this means that how farms are managed will also change. Probably the major force for change is the changing role of government. In essence, Canadian and US agricultural policy is shifting away from price and income support to adjustment assistance, and a less regulated market environment. At the same time, society is demanding a more environmentally sensitive approach to farming. Moreover, consumers are increasingly skeptical of the advantages of scientific discoveries, especially in bio-technology, and are increasingly concerned about food safety. There is also a trend to rurbanization and part-time farming around large urban centres. The electronic information explosion provides opportunities and challenges for marketing, production practices and the use of new technologies such as precision farming. These changes present exciting challenges to the professional farm manager in the 21st century. Perhaps the greatest of these challenges is to develop new, and refine existing, tools of risk management. A related challenge is how to finance the emerging new forms of farm business organizations, especially through the use of external equity capital. An on-going challenge will be to manage the adjustment process in an era of even more rapid change.