The Kersley Farmers' Institute was incorporated under the Societies Act of British Columbia on January 16, 1925. The group was an offshoot of the Cariboo Farmers' Institute, chartered in Quesnel in 1915 for the entire region. The new Insitute was desired, in part, due to the very large area served by the original institute and an influx of new farmers into the region, setting up farms under the Soldier's Settlements program following the Great War. Some of the 1925 Institute members had also previously informally organized as the 'United Farmers' and 'Kersley Potato Growers' in the early 1920s.

The signatories to the formation of the Institute in 1925 were Charles Freeman, John Yorston, Charles Beath, Robert Barlow and Edward Gray, who served as the first President. 

The Kersley Farmers' Institute was originally mandated to serve the districts of Kersley and Alexandria, with the remainder of the Cariboo Farmers' Institute continuing as the Dragon Lake Farmers' Institute. In its early days the Kersley Institute had members from Dog Prairie south to Soda Creek. Today, as one of few remaining Farmers' Institutes in central BC, the Institute welcomes members from across the Cariboo.

The Kersley Farmers' Institute, like others across the Province, was formed to serve and advance local agriculture, and this is in expressed in the objects of the 1925 constitution of the Institute:

1. To improve the conditions of rural life, so that settlement may be permanent and prosperous;

2. To promote the theory and practice of agriculture by lectures, essays, the circulation of information and other educational methods, and to stimulate interest by exhibitions, prizes and other means;

3. To arrange on behalf of its members for the purchase,  distribution, or sale of commodities, supplies, or products, and generally to act on their behalf in all matters incidental to agricultural pursuits;

4. To promote social intercourse, mutual helpfulness, and the diffusion of knowledge, and to make new settlers welcome.

From its inception through to the present, the Institute has played a leading role in advancing agricutlure and rural development in the North Cariboo and beyond.

Some of the more notible achievements include:

• Hosting or supporting countless educational workshops, lectures and field days on a variety of agriculture-related topics;

• Making cooperative purchases of critical agricultural supplies for its members in the early days, to organizing the North Cariboo Growers Co-op (now part of the Four Rivers Co-op) in conjunction with the Dragon Lake, West Quesnel and Narcosli Farmers' Institutes, to carry on that work;

• Securing low-interest loans, shared equipment and advocating for government program support for agricultural land development from the 1930s through 1970s;

• Taking an active role in the preservation of arable land for agriculture;

• Helping to build rural services and community well-being, including advocacy for rural schools and health care, expanding and improving roads and the power grid, and hosting dances and other social events; and,

• Being a lead organization and supporter in the region in the development and implementation of the Cariboo agricultural climate change adaptation strategy.