The National Farmers Union of Ontario (NFU-O) is bringing its annual convention and AGM to Chatham-Kent.
It's hoping the event will educate and attract more people to the farming business.
NFU-O President Emery Huszka says there is a definite decline in the number of people interested in farming.
"Statistic Canada's recent numbers reaffirmed that [decline]," he says. "We are seeing bigger farms, non-farm ownership, and gravitation to other occupations with more revenue."
In recognizing this, the NFU-O is trying something new at this year's convention.
A panel discussion will be held on the first day of the convention with three people who have legal and financial backgrounds.
"Between them they have over 100 years of practical experience," says Huszka. "The idea is that at 1:30pm, Friday, March 3, any of the students or any young farmers starting up that would like to come and take advantage of a panel discussion on the things that go right and the things that go wrong are more than welcome to attend."
The panel discussion is a free event and will be held at the Pioneer Lecture Theatre at Ridgetown College.
The convention is scheduled to take place from March 3 to March 5 in the Ridgetown area, which hits close to home for Huszka because his mother was from Ridgetown and he grew up not too far away, near the Bothwell farming community.
"Every year the NFU-O holds our provincial AGM and last year it was in Kingston, this year being the fact that I was president, we were able to get it moved down to Ridgetown," he says. "To my knowledge it's the first time in our history we've had it at the Ridgetown Ag College."
To see more information about the convention or RSVP for events, click here.
