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.

A member of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Kainai First Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, is seriously committed to education, and agriculture is a main component. On a hot, late-July day, staff, students and community members gathered near Red Crow Community College in its expansive community garden.

With the second-largest reserve landbase in Canada and 23 per cent of its 210,080 Prairie acres earmarked for agricultural use, the Siksika Nation appears uniquely positioned to thrive in the farm sector. This is not the case. Though farming has taken place on Siksika since the turn of the previous century, only a handful of families have been able to make a go of it as independent operators. To understand why, we must unpack the policies and practices that form the historical and legal relationship between First Nations people and the Government of Canada.

Interest in gene editing is on the rise, and this technology is now being used in cereal breeding for the first time. As wheat farmers continue to grapple with climate change, politics and consumer demand in their quest for black ink, gene editing—the process of adding to, removing or changing an organism’s DNA—may help balance these demands.

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.

Farmers are skilled at many tasks. Marketing an entire season of crops while in line at Tim Hortons or properly sampling a super-B of grain while scrolling social media are but two examples. One thing many farmers just aren’t too good at, though, is retirement. For so many, 65 really is just a number. With the wisdom they’ve acquired in the art and science of farming, they can continue to make a difference. And given the standard auto features and air-rider comfort of new-model tractors, the work has become more physically accommodating for senior farmers.

As farms continue to increase in size, certain equipment manufacturers race to provide high-horsepower machinery that can stretch a farmer’s reach when they seed, spray and harvest. Farmers also require these increasingly efficient options to contend with a shrinking agricultural labour pool.

The country’s agriculture sector owes much to innovative ag entrepreneurs, many of them farmers, who have invented first-of-its-kind products that solve pressing problems. Collectively, their independent companies are known as short line manufacturers. A term they’ve grown into, it delineates how they create tailored solutions for localized problems.

Oil and gas production remains the province’s golden ticket, but with a sustained push, renewables continue to fight for market share. So many projects have gone into development or are at the assessment stage, it’s been hard to keep up. One of the newest types of builds is agrivoltaics, which has attracted big interest from farmers and corporate investors alike.

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.