In a sector increasingly facing issues with social licensing, farmers have an opportunity to open their doors and educate consumers on food production.

This will be the seventh year farm and agricultural sites across the province have opened their doors to the general public as a day to create connections between consumers and agriculture.

Open Farm Day coordinator Wendy Bulloch says the province-wide event is a good way to create conversation between consumers and producers.

"Farmers are very good stewards of the land. They do pay attention to their animals, they pay attention to their crops, and they are producing food for all of us," she says. "I think it's a good way for consumers to see another side of agriculture and actually come out and have a conversation with a farmer."

Bulloch, who is part of the Manitoba Association of Agricultural Societies, says last year was the first year her organization looked after Open Farm Day, as previously the event was run by Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development.

She says after last year's event, they held regional advisory group meetings across the province to collect feedback on how to further improve Open Farm Day.

"We had a lot of good feedback from (the meetings) on little ideas from how to deal with people on the farm — even having people come to the farm and parking -- and some other ideas about how to encourage participants to the farm through different communication mediums," Bulloch says. "We've had really good support from previous hosts with lots of excellent ideas and suggestions."

More information is available online on the Open Farm Day website. The deadline to register as a host farm is Saturday, April 30.