An Overview of the Canadian Agricultural Innovation System is a comprehensive report on the agricultural research and innovation system: where funding is from, how policies are developed, trends, human capital, and dissemination.
Some of the key findings include:
- Agriculture and agri-food generate $113.8 billion and one in every eight jobs in Canada (2.3 million);
- Canada is the world’s fifth largest global exporter of agri-food products with sales of over $55 billion;
- Public investments still represent the largest source of funding for Canada’s agriculture research and development but have been steadily declining over the last three decades;
- The private sector has either under-invested or decreased investments in research and development;
- The lack of a common analytics platform and rural broadband difficulties often prevents farmers and producers from realizing the full potential of large-scale research;
- Skilled labour shortages are potentially undermining Canada’s research capacity.
This report was in part based on a research project funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.
