Marginal acres unsuitable or less suitable for crop production are common on cultivated farmland. To conduct conventional farming practices on such unproductive acres reduces profitability and increases deterioration of land.
The annual growth rate of Canadian agricultural productivity stood at or near two per cent from 1991 to 2010, according to a Farm Credit Canada (FCC) report released in December 2023. Since 2011, productivity growth has slowed and stands at just one per cent where it is projected to remain for the rest of this decade.
According to research from Farm Management Canada (FMC), less than one in four Canadian farmers have a written farm business plan. Such a document serves as a decision-making roadmap. While it can be used to manage and mitigate risk, it also sets a course to achieve goals.
In February, the federal government created the new Canada Indo-Pacific Agriculture and Agri-Food office (IPAAO) in Manila, the capital city of the Philippines. The facility is intended to expand trade opportunities in the region. “The creation of the IPAAO is unprecedented for Canada’s agriculture sector,” said an Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) spokesperson. “It is the first time the sector will have a regional office dedicated to the Indo-Pacific region as a whole under Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy.”
Two Alberta businesses have found value in the rescue of spent grain, a byproduct of the brewing process. Such products illustrate the previously overlooked value of food waste.
Crop exports are a huge source of revenue for Alberta’s ag industry as is evidenced by its $16.2 billion economic contribution. However, the province’s domestic food manufacturing sales sector was worth a whopping $22.7 billion that same year.
While demand for flour products jumped by 24 per cent in Alberta between 2019 and 2022, the province’s exports of wheat and meslin flour also increased to $19.8 million in 2023 from $8.6 million in 2019.
Alberta farmers have a new option to be paid for the C02 they sequester. A program by Trimble will compensate those who demonstrate and quantify sustainable on-farm nitrogen management practices.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is quietly revolutionizing processes that underpin sectors from astronomy and health care to manufacturing and entertainment. Research and development of AI in agriculture and agri-food is likewise revolutionary, with products now available or galloping toward commercial release.
Substantial growth in the biologicals market has been driven in part by stricter pesticide regulations and by farmers who wish to produce higher yielding, more resilient crops. Biologicals represent a broad category of plant protection products, including biostimulants, biopesticides and biofertilizers.
