By Curtis Galbraith

Peace Region groups worried about new agriculture research set-up in Alberta

Mar 5, 2021 | 7:01 PM

GRANDE PRAIRIE, Alta. – Some agriculture groups say they have very serious concerns about the way of doing research in Alberta.

The province moved to the Results Driven Agriculture Research model in 2020, one that is meant to have agribusiness decide priority areas rather than government. Also, Alberta Agriculture is no longer doing research or extension work.

Peace Country Beef & Forage Association executive director Liisa Jeffrey says she is worried some research areas may not get enough funding.

“And those are the adaptive research and knowledge transfer phases. That is where we apply new technologies and practices to our regional areas, adapt them to our local growing conditions, and then support producers in adopting them on their operations”

Peace River farmer and SARDA Ag Research board chair Simon Lavoie says the results of studies done at colleges and universities may not be applicable in the Peace Country.

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“Our climate and our soil are all different, which changes things. For example, the local (applied research associations) SARDA, Peace Country Beef (& Forage Association) did some studies in the Peace on hemp and with those studies, they found that hemp grows really good here.”

Lavoie worries about funding going towards universities and away from local groups.

“One size does not fit our big province that is so different from end to end. It just doesn’t work.”

He adds farmers make decisions based on local research.

“It’s better to try things on a smaller scale, on plot size, and then if it works, (or) if they need to tweak it and make changes, then we go field-scale.”

Jeffrey says the funding concerns are both short-term and long-term.

“These changes are going to have an impact on our farm businesses for decades to come. I guess it is a bit surprising that they aren’t being talked about more. I think farmers and ranchers owe it to themselves to dig in and ask questions about what is going on. Is this system whole? Are all of the pieces effective?”

She adds agriculture is a key part of Alberta’s economic recovery, and research, extension and innovation are key parts of economic development.

“The majority of the (provincial) ag. budget goes to AFSC for AgriStability and crop insurance, but there is actually a huge risk mitigation component to research and extension including our regional apply, adopt, adapt approach which allows us to shoulder some of the risk for producers and then reduces the need for those programs.”

Jeffrey thinks putting more money into research will make costs lower over the long term.

She also worries about increased competition for research funding and that some worthy projects may not go ahead because there is no money available.