Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I'll start my remarks by talking about drone-monitored crops, solar-powered irrigation systems, and wireless sensors to collect data. These are all innovations that producers in Canada are using to bring food to our tables.
Canadian researchers are world leaders in areas such as bovine research, plant genomics, and many other items.
The agrifood sector was specifically identified by the federal government's Advisory Council on Economic Growth led by Dominic Barton, as one of the most promising in economic development, employment, and innovation capacity.
Perhaps the best example of Canadian agricultural innovation is canola. Developed by agricultural scientists in the 1970s, canola has grown to be one of the world's most important oilseed crops, and the most profitable commodity for Canadian farmers.
According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, about half of Canadian farms adopted at least one type of innovation that significantly improved product, process, or practice between 2011 and 2013. Our agricultural innovation sector has the potential to be a key engine of economic growth and productivity.
Since 1920 the Agricultural Institute of Canada has been the voice of Canada's agricultural research and innovation sector. Our members are the innovation takers of the agricultural sector. Whether it's precision agriculture that allows farmers to produce more food at a fraction of the cost or using plant genomics to develop climate change resistant crops, agricultural research is at the forefront.
In tandem with other initiatives, the creation of a national innovation strategy with special attention paid to strategic context in sector-specific initiatives, would help to ensure that Canadian innovative breakthroughs are appreciated across sector lines by both pure and applied researchers.
Some of the key measures we recommended deal with retraining. One of the major obstacles that Canada's agricultural sector has always had to work to overcome is labour shortages. The advent of new technology and innovation brings a new level to this existing problem. As new technology is being utilized by producers, for example, unmanned aerial systems and remotely sensed images to monitored crops, new problems and opportunities are created.
While jobs may be lost to technological advancements, an opportunity exists to retrain those individuals and transition them to have other roles related to the new technology. For example, we can offer retraining to some farmhands or other workers to transition them to operate the drones and then collect and analyze the data. By offering retraining and transition assistance, the government can help encourage farmers to utilize new technologies and ensure that qualified individuals are on hand to operate them. This helps Canada to be more productive in the short and long terms.
We have also made recommendations related to Canadian-made technology. Canada's agricultural sector provides one in eight jobs in Canada and employs over 2.3 million people. With a rapidly growing rural population and favourable global market trends, demand for Canadian agrifood products is expected to rise to at least $75 billion by 2025.
Agricultural innovation has the potential to be a key engine of economic growth, job creation, and productivity, thus strengthening Canada's competitive position internationally. Unless we capitalize on the strong innovation potential, Canada's agricultural production will be unable to meet the world's market demand. An easy way to do this would be to help bridge the gap between academic research and its application. To move forward, we need to create a climate where researchers, innovators, and producers work together to use agricultural research to better the sector as a whole. Enhanced cross-sector collaboration will allow for the rapid adoption of made-in-Canada technology.
We need to support private sector involvement in long-term research as well. In November of last year, Vineland Research and Innovation Centre hosted a symposium to develop an automation technology strategy for Canada's horticultural sector. This is a great example of a private organization taking steps to promote innovation, and something the government should strive to see more of. Creating incentives for private investment in agricultural innovation will increase the number of companies in Canada willing to capitalize on our research capacity, and in the long term will stimulate Canada's competitiveness and productivity.
In the spring of this year, AIC brought together government officials, industry representatives, and other agricultural research stakeholders to discuss agricultural innovation in a changing environment. We heard from those groups that strong, targeted incentives and lower investment rates for innovative producers and agribusinesses are needed to support the development and usage of green technology.
The government's recent superclusters initiative is a good first step. Creating opportunities and attractive climates for companies to make strategic investments in long-term research will ultimately lead to those technologies being used more broadly by the sector as a whole, increasing our productivity.
In tandem with the superclusters initiative, the government should take steps to incentivize collaboration and research. The first step should be to bring agricultural researchers and other stakeholders together to set medium- and long-term objectives and a key set of priorities.
Take, for example, an agricultural researcher at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre who is working on the carbon sequestration project. He is developing a way to use plant matter, that is, straw or corn stalks, heated to a high temperature in a low-oxygen environment. The result is black carbon-rich material similar to charcoal. It helps to enrich the soil and can be used for long-term carbon sequestration. In a nutshell, this research is minimizing agriculture's impact on the environment and helping us achieve our productivity goal. More of this research needs to be enhanced through various measures, including taxation measures.
As you can see, this research touches on more than just agriculture. In that vein, we support the idea of other government departments, including Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, Natural Resources Canada, and Environment and Climate Change Canada, paying closer attention to agricultural research and its interrelationship with other sectors. We hope the government will recognize the important role that agricultural research plays in more than just traditional farming.
Budgetary expenditures financing the Canadian agricultural innovation system represented 0.046% of Canada's total GDP in 2015, steadily declining over the past three decades. We recognize that the present government has reinvested some money, but more needs to be done.
Recently the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, noted:
The Government of Canada is committed to investing in fundamental research and engineering that will [improve and] enrich our country’s knowledge economy. We believe in encouraging scientists’ cutting-edge ideas that will lead Canada to greater social and economic growth.
We agree. The AIC echoes that and believes that the time to make strategic investments to ensure a successful future for Canada's agriculture innovation sector is now. Our brief provides some examples.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.