Ontario crop advisor organization to offer NM planning specialist certification in 2016

Thursday, December 3, 2015

by SUSAN MANN

The Ontario Certified Crop Advisor Association will be the first Canadian organization to offer a nutrient management planning specialist certification for its certified crop advisors next year.

The specialist certification is based on the 4R nutrient stewardship framework of right source, rate, time and place for nutrients. Created by the International Certified Crop Advisor program and the American Society of Agronomy, the 4R specialty certification was piloted in six American states in August 2015. It will be offered again in the United States in February 2016.

Only people who already have their certified crop advisor designation can get the specialty certification. And certified crop advisors will have to write and pass a four-hour exam to get it. The exam will likely be offered in August 2016, says Susan Fitzgerald, executive director of the Ontario Certified Crop Advisor Association.

The specialization will recognize the work certified crop advisors do in nutrient management planning. “It’s to profile the positive soil and water and nutrient management stewardship at the farm level,” she says, noting the 4R philosophy is being promoted by various organizations.

Advisors will also need increased hours of continuing education in the soil/water quality and nutrient management categories for the specialist certification. All certified crop advisors have to get 40 pre-approved hours of continuing education every two years in four agronomic categories: soil/water quality, nutrient management, integrated pest management and crop management, she says. The continuing education is pre-approved by the crop advisor association.

For the nutrient management planning specialist certification, advisors must have a minimum of 7.5 hours of continuing education every two years in each of the soil/water quality and nutrient management categories. The minimum for the other categories is five hours. But advisors will have more hours in some areas than others to reach their 40 hours.

There are 540 certified crop advisors in Ontario, Fitzgerald says. She doesn’t know how many advisors will sign up to get the nutrient management planning specialist certification but “I would like to see at least 50 come forward next year.”

Fertilizer Canada is working in partnership with the certified crop advisor association and is developing 4R nutrient stewardship resource materials and continuing education opportunities. BF