Feds earmark $87.5M to develop sustainable agriculture projects over next 4 years

An announcement Thursday in eastern Prince Edward Island confirmed that $87.5 million in federal funds will be going toward developing sustainable agriculture projects in the next four years.

The money will be divided among 30 academic institutions across the country, and includes $6.9 million for the UPEI-affiliated Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation in St. Peters Bay.

In total, more than 165 researchers will participate in 16 collaborative research projects.

"This is a very exciting day for me personally, for the centre, my team and obviously the University of Prince Edward Island," said Aitazaz Farooque, professor and associate dean at the centre. 

"For this, I think we will be recruiting a lot of new graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, undergrads to build the capacity and develop technologies and BMP's [best-management practices] for the local industry, regional industry and national industry," he said.

The money comes in the form of a grant from both the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), in collaboration with Agriculture and Agri-food Canada.

Many of the projects are focused on things like developing best-management practices to improve soil health, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and improving carbon sequestering methods.

"In the face of climate change… food security is important," Farooque said. "Prince Edward Island, if we don't have rain for two or three months, we don't have any control over [that]. So it's a matter of preparedness."

Staying competitive
Minister of Agriculture and Agri-food Lawrence MacAulay was on hand Thursday to make the announcement in his home riding of Cardigan. 

MacAulay said the projects will help Canada stay at the forefront of research in this area.

"We're going to make sure that we're on the cutting edge and we're going to be competitive worldwide in the agricultural sector," he said.

MacAulay said it's important that Canadian farms remain profitable as well as sustainable.

"All I want to do is make sure that it creates more opportunity for the agricultural sector," he said. "We export just under $100 billion of agriculture and agri-food products. The demand for agriculture and agri-food products and protein around the world is increasing all the time.

"So either we can provide it, or somebody else will."