The Agricultural Producers Association of Saskatchewan (APAS) is getting ready to open up its ranks for the Young Leaders program again this year.
In that program, they invite anyone between the ages of 18-40 to look at the policy side of agriculture and what APAS does.
APAS Vice President Bill Prybylski talks about what that entails for the people selected.
"Every year APAS puts out applications for the Young Leaders program so we get the young producers from across the province, young being under 40 years of age, and we try and get them some experience in an agriculture leadership program. So we get them to come to our annual general meetings, to our board meetings, to some of our policy meetings."
"We take them to Ottawa with us for the Canadian Federation of Agriculture's annual general meeting and get some face-to-face, sit-down meetings with some parliamentarians, some ministers, and other Members of Parliament, senators. Just kind of give them a feel for what's involved in becoming a leader in the agriculture industry."
Prybylski says that in past years they've been able to inspire great candidates to take up the cause.
"It's been a very successful program in the past. We've had some really good candidates come through the program and they've gone on to do some great things in terms of leadership in this province. So we would encourage any young producers who have any interest in ag policy to seriously consider signing up to be in the next program for the Young Leaders program."
Even if you don't own your own farm Prybylski says people are more than welcome to apply.
"Obviously we'd like to see somebody with a farming background, not necessarily actively involved in the farm, but have a keen interest in agriculture. Also an interest in policy as we are a policy organization and that's kind of what we're tending towards is trying to get the young people involved in the policy side of agriculture and they have to be able to dedicate some time."
"It does require a bit of dedication in terms of time to attend our meetings when we go to Ottawa, it's a full 5 days of being away from home. So there is a bit of a time commitment, but if anybody is interested we can fully explain exactly what that time commitment might look like."
More information on how to apply can be found on APAS's website.