The Royal Bank of Canada is offering $5 million over five years to entice university students to start technology businesses that help farmers.
The money will be used for training programs, work placements and other activities such as hackathons.
The money is sorely needed, said RBC agriculture policy lead Lisa Ashton. In a report released alongside the announcement, the bank said Canadian agriculture is not fully equipped to tackle climate change, trade volatility and rising costs because of a drought of fresh talent, capital and innovation.
As a result, Canada’s ranking in global agri-food trade value has slipped from fifth to ninth place since the early 2000s, while productivity growth has declined from two per cent to one per cent over the last 10 years.
But encouraging young talent to look toward agriculture is a solution, Ashton said.
“I think the big barrier is exposure to the agricultural sector. Within agriculture, everyone is passionate about the sector and champions it. But those outside are not aware.”
A broader initiative involving a number of universities and colleges will also expose students to entrepreneurial training, such as how to pitch a business to investors. This could help slow the agricultural startup drain to the United States where new businesses have more access to capital and mentorship.
It is Sustainable Food Systems for Canada network, or SF4C - a group of 13 universities and colleges that is trying to connect more than 10,000 students to agricultural work placements and other training opportunities in the sector.
Agri-food technology startups in the U.S. have received 94 per cent more investment than those in Canada over the past five years, the RBC report said.
“By creating incentives to reward innovative farmers, and equipping the next generation to be entrepreneurial problem solvers, we can work towards better national food security,” said Evan Fraser, director of the Arrell Food Institute at the University of Guelph and co-chair of SF4C.
And funding from public and private institutions is key, Ms. Ashton said.
Government spending on agricultural knowledge generation has dropped 15 per cent since 2010, falling behind the U.S., Japan, Australia and Brazil, according to the RBC report.
Government funding for research and development on agriculture in universities is down 77 per cent across the past five years, the report said.
Fresh talent is needed to reverse the trend, Ashton said.
“We need deep expertise that not only understands the landscape, but also understands how to apply it to the agricultural sector.”
