Mr Richardson is among nine candidates, including Silver Fern Farms chairman Rob Hewett, seeking to fill the two vacancies for South Island directors.
He has been outspoken about his opposition to Silver Fern Farms' proposed 50:50 joint venture with Chinese company Shanghai Maling, pushing instead for a discussion over a merger with Alliance Group.
In a statement, he said it was a critical time for farmers still actively involved on the land to ''step up'' and become involved in securing the future of the co-operative model in the rural sector.
Farmlands Co-operative was officially created in March, 2013, through the merger of South Island-based CRT and North Island-based Farmlands.
Mr Hewett, who farms in the Manuka Gorge and previously worked in the retail arm of Shell, said Farmlands was still a young business.
While significant benefits had been achieved through merging, bedding-in of the new culture and strategy still remained a task to be completed.
It was at the stage where the establishment board that oversaw the merger and a rapidly growing business now needed to evolve, he said.
Other Otago farmers standing are Chris Dennison, who farms an arable property and adjacent dairy farm in North Otago, and Central Otago sheep and deer farmer Gary Kelliher.
Mr Dennison, a former deputy chairman of Ravensdown, said while the new Farmlands had emerged as the country's largest rural co-operative, history showed ''sheer size'' was no guarantee of returns.
Careful leadership was needed as the company navigated through the fallout of recent and significant commodity changes and collapsing dairy incomes, a new chief executive and nationwide expansion, he said.
Mr Kelliher, who is also a first-term Otago regional councillor, had been impressed with the evolution of CRT into Farmlands and was keen to see it continue to successfully service the rural sector most cost-effectively for its shareholders.
Also standing are incumbent director Joe Ferraby (Marlborough), Andy Fox (North Canterbury), Andrew Harris (North Canterbury), Albert Heyer (Havelock), and Peter Turner (Northern Southland).
There are three candidates for the one North Island director vacancy: Richard Burgess, David Jensen and Fenton Wilson. Farmlands will hold its annual meeting in New Plymouth on November 3.
Invercargill-born Peter Reidie takes up his role as Farmlands chief executive on October 19, having previously been managing director of Goodman Fielder Australia and New Zealand.
Brent Esler, previously CRT chief executive, resigned as chief executive of Farmlands in February and chief financial officer Tony van der Hoorn has been interim chief executive.
