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AgCanadaTV: Inflation puts tighter squeeze on farmers<\/p>\n
https:\/\/youtu.be\/01QTwimyPsE In today\u2019s In case you missed it special feature: Canadians are feeling the effects of inflation across the country\u2026<\/p>\n
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Satellite research farms at Nappan, N.S., Scott, Sask., Indian Head, Sask. and Portage la Prairie, Man., will also close.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after Thursday\u2019s news that 665 AAFC jobs were to be cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cLike other federal departments, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) has identified savings over three years while remaining focused on its core mandate,\u201d AAFC said.<\/p>\n \u201cAAFC will remain Canada\u2019s largest agricultural research organization, with 17 research centres nationwide and research farmland in every province. There are no imminent site closures, and any wind-down of scientific operations would follow a careful decision process that could take up to 12 months. Many employees may be retained, reassigned, or relocated. It is too early to determine final workforce impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n Restructuring Canada\u2019s agriculture research landscape<\/p>\n Cuts to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) could be a step toward\u00a0restructuring Canada\u2019s agriculture research landscape<\/a>, according to national stakeholders.<\/p>\n Keith Currie, President of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) called the cutbacks a \u201cnecessary evil\u201d and said Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Heath MacDonald and Deputy Minister Lawrence Hanson have their \u201cfingers on the pulse of the ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with efficiencies,\u201d Currie said. \u201cAnd if \u2026 there were hirings that didn\u2019t make sense, taking a look at it and getting leaner and meaner, I think that\u2019s what we do in business. That\u2019s what you do on our farms.\u201d<\/p>\n He added there have been jobs added in the last decade that some producers have \u201ckind of scratched our head at.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHaving said that, it depends where these cuts are going to happen,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe\u2019ve been clamoring for probably 10, 15 years about\u00a0not enough public sector research<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Tyler McCann, Managing Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute (CAPI) said the cutbacks, particularly the reported closures of research sites, were a predictable development.<\/p>\n \u201c(AAFC) has, for decades now, not been investing in its infrastructure,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has not been keeping up the investments it needed to make to maintain quality modern research infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is inevitable, if you don\u2019t invest, that at a certain point in time you will need to start to close facilities. And that appears to be where we\u2019re at today.\u201d<\/p>\n He added politicians were likely responding to the signals from the broader agriculture community, which he said has not always championed science and research among other issues like trade and business risk management.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully this reminds everyone else in the ag ecosystem that research and development and innovation is critical to competitiveness, and we need to double down on making that a priority going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n McCann said an upside of the cuts is that they could provide an opportunity for a renewal point in agriculture research in Canada.<\/p>\n \u201cHopefully Agriculture Canada will start to show some leadership on this and engage with the other stakeholders who have significant skin in the game, other R&D funders, other R&D performers, in what that renewal looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n It could be a chance for the AAFC to do more with less. McCann said there is an argument to be made that the department \u201chad too broad of a research footprint for the research funding envelope that they had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat will determine whether or not we can be competitive at a time of cuts is whether or not they\u2019re going to make other changes to how they fund and do research to streamline and improve the efficiency of the work that they do.\u201d<\/p>\n Currie and McCann both said it would be important to keep on those with roles to play in the recently announced\u00a0Next Policy Framework<\/a>, which will cover the 2028-33 period.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a real opportunity for governments and the stakeholder community around them to double down on innovation and to say, yes, we know that (AAFC) shrank its footprint, but in the Next Policy Framework, for the next five years, governments are going to commit more resources and more energy and more focus to innovation,\u201d McCann said.<\/p>\n Currie also pointed to the agriculture trade file and the temporary foreign worker\/seasonal agriculture worker programs as areas he hoped would remain steady.<\/p>\n Competitiveness, productivity implications<\/p>\n University of Saskatchewan agricultural economist Richard Gray said the loss of research programs is concerning.<\/p>\n Public research cost-benefit returns are 35:1 in wheat alone, he said. Other countries that have cut public research in favour of private funding have seen\u00a0productivity gains<\/a>\u00a0decline.<\/p>\n Gray added he hopes the government has a new funding model in mind since the cuts don\u2019t fit with the growth model currently touted by prime minister Mark Carney.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s a shame and disgrace that we\u2019re not, as a country, supporting one of the foundations of our country in an appropriate manner that will keep the industry competitive and vibrant on the world stage,\u201d said Ken Coles, executive director of Lethbridge-based research and innovation group\u00a0Farming Smarter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Coles said this was a problem with leadership in general, and basically underestimating the importance of agriculture to a country.<\/p>\n He said investment has slumped from provincial and private angles as well.<\/p>\n \u201cOur agricultural innovation system is a complete HR crisis. I don\u2019t think we have the human capital to deal with any challenges that we might be facing in the future, and we certainly won\u2019t be able to take advantage of any opportunities and innovation,\u201d Coles said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been a critical loss in capacity that allowed us to do great things in agriculture. I think we no longer have it.\u201d<\/p>\n Coles said it\u2019s difficult for his organization to hire scientists with the right skills. They instead have to be trained \u201cfrom the ground up.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEverybody\u2019s excited and sold these grand new ideas of\u00a0new technologies solving things<\/a>. But you still hear the same message that we\u2019re failing at adopting and commercializing innovation,\u201d Coles said.<\/p>\n \u201cAll the innovation is on this public entrepreneur piece, and they don\u2019t know how to add value in agriculture. It goes well beyond just this layoff. It\u2019s another blow to breaking the innovation system in agriculture across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s an insidious aspect to cutting research, said Reynold Bergen, science director at the\u00a0Beef Cattle Research Council.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0like a\u00a0really long\u00a0hose. Think of water running out of a long hose, and you shut the tap off and water keeps running until it\u00a0doesn\u2019t,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe may not see impact right away from a production perspective, but the impact will come,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0show up.\u201d<\/p>\n One way to predict the impact is to look at past benefits of forage, beef and cattle research from AAFC, Bergen said.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think of some of the things that have come out, where would you be without them? So where would you be without new varieties? Where would you be without extended grazing? Where would you be without good controls on food safety? Where would you be without a good grading system? Those are the kind of impacts that we will see down the line.<\/p>\n Industry reacts<\/p>\n The Canadian Wheat Research Coalition said the staff cuts and resulting impacts are a tremendous loss for the industry.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a loss of not only expertise and people who have contributed to farmers\u2019 success, but also of agricultural research capacity that is crucial to fueling innovation and maintaining progress throughout the industry,\u201d said chair Jocelyn Velestuk in a news release.<\/p>\n The CWRC was already reviewing Canada\u2019s wheat breeding innovation system and said this is even more vital now. It said long-term impacts aren\u2019t yet clear.<\/p>\n![\"Keith](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/207037_web1_Keith-Currie-1SUPPLIED-1024x810.jpeg\")
Keith Currie, CFA President. Photo: Supplied<\/p>\n![\"Ken](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/ken-coles_farming-smarter-1024x1024.jpg\")
Ken Coles (centre) leads farmers and agronomists at the 2025 Farming Smarter Field School through research plots of an inter-row canola study while he presents on the impact of the various cover crop seeding rates and termination methods used in the trials. Photo: Farming Smarter<\/p>\n
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