Farmers need help moving to increased automation and robotization.   Ottawa—The federal and provincial governments need to encourage the growth of farm and food research to make Canada a leading global producer, says the Agri-Food Innovation Council (AIC). The call for action was a key conclusion from a series of webinars conducted by AIC in recent months on the importance of investment in research and innovation in the sector. Currently Canada is in the middle of OECD countries in terms of agrifood R&D. Boosting it has “the potential to enable a significant transformation of the sector. To leverage this strength to its full potential, the federal and provincial governments will need to address challenges to taxation and the investment environment,” AIC said. Besides aiding the country's economic growth, research and innovation breakthroughs will produce tools for combating climate change, improving nutritional security and enhancing sustainability, AIC said. The federal and provincial governments can encourage their development by creating an attractive climate for investment. Research includes the acquisition of new knowledge for which new applications may later be developed, while innovation includes the adoption of new or significantly improved products and processes by an organization, AIC said. Speakers in the webinars highlighted a number of challenges. “While Canadian universities are renowned for the quality of their research, more could be done to commercialize it.” The innovation side has not yet reached its peak maturity because of a lack of incubators and accelerators, “the limited number of mentorship programs to help entrepreneurs access capital for growth, the limited commercialization of novel technology, and limited efforts to pilot new technologies.” On top of fixing the current labour shortages, the future will require a workforce that includes “more enablers with the skills to assist with the adoption of new technology and productivity enhancing practices and specialists able to improve processes, productivity and well-being to adopt and maintain innovative technology and practices at the farm level.” To correct these drawbacks, the federal government should encourage institutional investors to significantly increase their investments, attracting the next generation of students, researchers and skilled workers in the sector and continuing to encourage entrepreneurs and researchers to connect.” Automation and robotics continue to show promising applications for food manufacturers looking to increase productivity, cut operating costs, and help address significant labour shortage issues, AIC said. However, their acquisition is expensive and also requires hiring and training of specialists to operate it. “High upfront costs often put adoption of such process innovation out of reach, particularly for small and medium size enterprises.” The adoption of innovative technology such as precision agriculture or robotization can be challenging in primary agriculture where the ease of implementation and high costs, particularly for smaller farms and ranches. “Moreover, farmers and ranchers will often refrain from implementing experimental technology unless such initiative shows that it will not negatively affect revenues.” Ottawa should provide direct funding to early adopters and innovative farmers to cover the high initial costs of implementing technology that improves sustainability and productivity, AIC said. Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.