Canada can play a leading role meeting future food challenges by renewing and enhancing our effort in agricultural research; AIC Policy
Agricultural research will be the primary source of innovation and productivity enhancements that are needed to meet future challenges in food security and sustainability.
Canada can play a leading role by renewing and enhancing our efforts in agricultural research over the next twenty years.
This begins with a modern agricultural research policy that leads to innovation and sustainability.
Beginning in 2015, the Agricultural Institute of Canada (AIC) spear-headed an initiative to develop an agricultural research policy for the 21st century.
This culminated in a comprehensive conference that brought together academics, research groups and organizations from the public private sector, all contributing input that helped inform the development of the policy, published September 2015.
Leading Innovation and Sustainability: An Agricultural Research Policy for the 21st Century recommends among other things:
- Set national goals in agricultural research
- Consult all stakeholders when establishing research priorities
- Recognize Canada’s global responsibilities
- Enhance processes to transfer knowledge from research to end-users
- Have stable and predictable financial support for both fundamental and applied research
While the policy is a “living document” and will continue to be updated on a yearly basis, AIC has now embarked on advocating the policy on behalf of the agricultural research community through discussions with federal and provincial governments, media, and industry groups.
To strengthen this advocacy effort we are currently building a list of 100 organizations that will state: “The following organizations have read and support the general principles of the agricultural research policy developed by the Agricultural Institute of Canada.”
A demonstration of support from a broad range of stakeholders from across agricultural commodities leads to a greater voice for advocacy for the agriculture sector as a whole. Contact us to add your name to the list.
AIC will be reaching out to stakeholder this month inviting feedback for possible changes and updates to the policy, for which there will be time set aside at our upcoming conference, AIC 2016: Disseminating Agricultural Research. We invite all stakeholders to participate in this process.
Leading Innovation and Sustainability: An Agricultural Research Policy for the 21st Century