Ottawa-As Canada’s agriculture ministers gathered in Whitehorse for their mid-July annual meeting, the release of an Angus Reid opinion poll provided them with a sobering list of challenges facing the sector.

The poll found three core concerns – the policy and regulatory environment, extreme weather and trade barriers and protectionism – as exerting the greatest impact on the sector and none of them will be easily overcome. Following them were input affordability, farm income and debt, human resources, and climate change.

The Canadian Agri-Food Policy Institute and the Global Institute for Food Security at the University of Saskatchewan backed the polling of more than 500 stakeholders in the Canadian agriculture sector to ascertain the biggest risks and opportunities facing the sector.

“The agriculture industry has faced a cascade of challenges in recent years,” the poll said. “Climate change, market volatility, supply chain disruptions, and evolving regulations have disrupted planting and harvesting schedules and challenged those employed across the sector.” The ripple effects throughout the supply chain impact the whole society and “government efforts to ensure food security are perhaps overlooked by many Canadians, but nonetheless affect millions.”

The poll found fewer than 15 per cent of those in the sector have confidence in government solving any of the three main challenges while fewer than 22 per cent say they have confidence in private sector solutions. “Thus, the uphill battle will evidently persist for years to come. Despite this, optimism in the industry is relatively high. Consider that those in the sector are three-times as likely to say they’re optimistic (62 per cent) about the direction of Canadian agriculture than pessimistic (21 per cent).

While confidence in problem solving is low, the prevailing view appears to be that many opportunities are to be had including accessing international markets and expanding on domestic potential. Nearly half of those polled say Canada is well-positioned to take advantage of rising incomes globally and the subsequent expansion in demand. Close to one-third said Canadian agriculture is in a fair position, while one-in-five had a negative view.

The top priorities for government should be trade policy, climate change adaptation and research and development while the principal concerns for the private sector are research and development, productivity growth and business investment.

The export markets judged as having the biggest opportunities for the agriculture sector are India and the rest of Asia outside of China and India, both at 41 per cent. One-in-five say both the domestic Canadian market and the U.S. and Mexico are massive opportunities.

The poll said that opinions among famers, government workers, civil society, and others in the farming industry diverge in some areas. While no group is overly confident that solutions to the top three challenges will be easily discovered, those in government are more confident in government problem solving and less confident in the private sector.

This news item prepared for National Newswatch