Things you may not know

 

Did you know that Canada gave help to Ukraine’s agriculture sector, specifically:

- $52 million for agricultural solutions including grain storage units in Ukraine.

- $250,000 to double Canada's support to the Agricultural Market Information

System given May 14, 2022.

 

And Canada’s aid for hungry people included an additional $250 million in humanitarian funding to help address the increasing global food and nutrition needs over 2022 and 2023, given September, 2022.

 

When Paul Samson, Associate Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, spoke at an international meeting to ponder the importance of trade, he highlighted a couple of Canadian aid projects.

 

The Modernizing Agriculture in Ghana (MAG) project (2017-2023) shares agriculture extension services, market research, inclusive and climate-smart educational training and trade facilitation to develop strong food value chains. To date, the $135 M project has increased agricultural extension visits, increased participation in commodity groups, linked farmers to processors, provided educational support, and increased agricultural production and farmers' livelihoods. 

 

Canada is committed to inclusive economic empowerment. Canada has invested $19.5 M in the M-SAWA, an agricultural development project in K e n a to help women access resources and training.

And, the project's partnerships have also allowed small entrepreneurs to access time and labour saving technology like farm equipment, irrigation, and pest and disease control.

 

I'd like to speak about Canada's international development work and steps to improve inclusion, Samson said. Canada consistently supports agricultural development projects and is committed to continuing support for projects that promote social justice and gender equality, consistent with Canada's Feminist International Assistance Policy.

For example, Canada has funded a program in Senegal to improve the socio-economic wellbeing and resilience of farming households through specialized training in

agriculture, especially climate-smart agriculture. The $18.3 million program, which runs from 2019 to 2024, focuses on promoting the adoption of innovative and affordable technologies and smart practices by women and youth.