Right now, there is quite a dilemma. I don't know to what extent this applies to the rest of Canada, but in Quebec, the Agrologists Act has just been amended. Agronomists could receive a percentage on the sale of fertilizers or pesticides. At the same time, they provided advice. It was a very clear conflict of interest situation, which this new bill will eliminate.
There are networks of independent advisory clubs. I used to see this in the United States on a regular basis. We have this elsewhere in Canada, such as Alberta and Ontario. They should be helped, because they have less of a conflict of interest. In general, most have difficulty offering advice other than that associated with liming or fertilizer recommendations, because the other services are much more expensive.
Let's take the example of drainage plans. In most cases, producers think they have drainage problems, but often they also have very significant compaction problems. This goes undetected, because no one is doing the analysis necessary to carry it out. Obviously, if you don't do the analysis to detect the problem, then you're not fixing the problem properly.
These services are not offered by fertilizer retailers, but rather by independent advisory clubs.