Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

Canadian farmers are facing a “generational now-or-never moment,” and to seize it, stakeholders in the agricultural sector have to embrace a digital revolution that will propel the country into becoming a food-producing powerhouse, according to a new report by The Agri-Food Policy Institute. Failing to do so could threaten the sector’s ability to compete on the global stage.

The Ottawa-based agricultural think-tank warns farmers face what it terms a “critical decade,” as many prepare to pass their operations to the next generation, a tech-ready cohort, while others are ready to embrace available technologies to improve their business practices, but they need support from policy-makers.

These two dynamics combine to create what the study’s authors call “a perfect window of opportunity.”

This is the stage from where the “now-or-never moment” will play out. But how it all turns out depends on the embrace of technology.

And that is where a size of an operation often plays a role.

According to the study, large operations “thrive by adopting new tools and technologies, but smaller farms struggle,” often missing the opportunity on technology’s ability to improve profitability and generate gains in sustainability.

The research report, entitled The Future is Digital: Digital Agriculture and Canadian Agriculture Policy, set out to understand why the adoption of tech within the sector is slow despite “clear potential for gains in productivity, competitiveness and sustainability.”

The authors, who include The Agri-Food Policy Institute’s managing director Tyler McCann, state farmers’ relationship with tech matters because the 2023-2028 Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership, the country’s agricultural policy, does not include digital agriculture as a priority. And this, they claim, risks leaving Canadian farmers open to losing their competitive edge with respect to global competitors. This needs to be addressed, the authors claim.

“Digital agriculture offers powerful tools to address Canada’s pressing agricultural challenges, but the current approach isn’t delivering results. Despite the potential to increase yields by 20 per cent while reducing environmental impact, Canada captures just 3 per cent of global agtech venture capital investment compared to 55 per cent in the United States. If this trend continues, it will mean fewer leading global agtech companies will be built in Canada. Fewer innovations will be created and adapted by Canadian farmers,” the report states. “In this scenario, Canadian farmers in the future will have poorer access to the tools they need to be profitable and sustainable and will be less competitive compared to their peers in more digitally advanced nations. Eventually, this could represent an emerging threat to a $150-billion sector that employs 2.3 million Canadians and exports $99 billion annually to over 200 countries.”

According to estimates from Farm Credit Canada, “Canada’s agriculture sector could generate an additional $30 billion in net revenue over the next decade if it returns to annual productivity growth of 2 per cent — levels last seen from 1991 to 2010,” the report states. “However, without collaborative effort, productivity gains will likely remain stagnant at around 1 per cent until 2030.”

The notion of a digital transformation is not simply about adopting new technologies, the report states. Rather, it should be viewed as a process to reimagine the nature of farming.

“As external pressures, including trade uncertainties, climate volatility and rising production costs intensify, digital agriculture represents not merely an optional enhancement but a strategic necessity for maintaining competitiveness and resilience,” the report states.

The authors make an urgent plea to government policy-makers:

“There isn’t any time to lose. The 10-year sprint to complete the digital transformation of Canada’s agriculture sector must begin now. By 2035, digital tools on-farm should be the norm, woven into how all farms run, boosting productivity without the need for continued government funding. And, at the same time, further delays to digitizing Canadian farm operations will mean our agriculture sector will be stuck playing catch-up relative to international peers.”

The 27-page report makes five recommendations:

1. It calls to recognize digital agriculture as a national priority within the framework of the next Federal-Provincial-Territorial agreement, and establish a 10-year digital action plan for the Canadian agriculture sector.

2. It calls for the creation of digital agriculture hubs to connect farmers, technology developers, ecosystem organizations, and provincial and federal governments.

3. It urges the federal government to launch a coordinated program to support infrastructure, commercial-scale technology testing and to encourage early adopters.

4. The federal government should also help develop markets that leverage agriculture data to deliver tangible value to farmers.

5. The federal government must implement a comprehensive national data strategy making it easier for agtech tools to integrate with the broader digital economy.