Ag innovation committee a good idea but too late: OFA president

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

by SUSAN MANN

A recently-established federal government committee designed to give federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz advice on agricultural innovation is a great idea but it should have been established two years ago, says Ontario Federation of Agriculture president Mark Wales.

“The minister has been talking innovation for years,” he says, noting the committee could have been set up in 2010 when the government started consultations on Growing Forward 2, the new national agriculture policy being implemented April 1, 2013. Agriculture ministers across Canada agreed in September on its content.

Wales says all the agreements for the policy will need to be signed during the next two months and for the agricultural industry to “have any real input prior to (the design of) Growing Forward 2, it’s already too late.”

Had it been established earlier, the committee would have been a way for the agricultural industry to feed ideas into the system, he says, noting they’re still going to try and submit ideas.

The federal government announced the new agri-innovators committee in September to complement Growing Forward 2’s focus on innovation. Its first meeting was last week. It meets again in January and will report, as well as make some recommendations, to the minister in February. The five-year Growing Forward 2 includes more than $3 billion for innovation, competitiveness and market development. It includes a 50 per cent increase in governments’ cost-shared initiatives.

In a Sept. 14 press release, federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says the committee is the first national body to provide advice on agricultural innovation and research. The 13-member committee’s job is to help ensure government investments are generating the results and returns needed by farmers.

Ritz says in the press release governments are transforming agricultural policy in Canada to increase focus on proactive and strategic investments that move the sector forward.
 
Grain Farmers of Ontario director Don Kenny, the founding chair of that organization, is one of four Ontario representatives on the committee that’s co-chaired by Travis Toews of Alberta, a past president of the Canadian Cattlemen’s Association, and Suzanne Vinet, deputy minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. The other Ontario representatives are: Shelley Doan, president of Trans World Cattle Company Ltd., Jim Thorne, president and CEO of Marsan Foods Limited, and Rejean Picard, CEO of Westbrook Greenhouse Systems Ltd.

Kenny says they had to sign a confidentiality agreement as part of being on the committee so he can’t talk about specific details involving discussions. At the first meeting “we identified two items that we want more information on.”

Kenny says their advice would be more on general directions the government should be moving in rather than naming specific projects.

As for the state of Canadian agricultural research and innovation currently, Kenny says Canada is a little below what countries like the United States and Australia invest. Industry and governments both need to “step up to the plate” to advance research. There also needs to more collaboration between governments and industry, he says.

Wales says in announcing the committee, the government talked about accelerating farmers’ adoption of innovation to make the agricultural sector more profitable, competitive and sustainable. Those have been the driving words for developing the non-business risk management programs in Growing Forward 2.

Traditionally some of government’s focus on innovation has been market development. But farmers also need help with commercialization – getting a new product through to market, Wales says. “That’s always been a problem. People have lots of great ideas and then they simply don’t know how to take the next step to actually produce it and market it.”

Help with getting new products to market fosters innovation at the farm level and beyond, he explains, noting farmers need a different set of skills for marketing than growing, including the ability to run a manufacturing facility and knowledge on how to interest local, Canadian and possibly international buyers in their product. BF