An agreement has been signed to develop a world class agri-food corridor between Calgary and Olds.
“The Calgary-Olds Smart Agri-Food Corridor is a great first step that southern Alberta is recognized as a leader. It will help us develop our ecosystem and help incubate entrepreneurial companies and people,” said Mary Moran, head of Calgary Economic Development.
The development authority and Olds College signed a memorandum of understanding Jan. 17.
The Calgary-Olds Smart Agri-Food Corridor is designed to position the 100 kilometre long region into an area that attracts agriculture entrepreneurs and start-up companies as well as research and technology development.
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It is also hoped the region can attract major funds from the federal government’s proposed Smart Agri-Food Supercluster, which aims to use efficient and powerful data to create better collaboration within agriculture. The Smart Agri-Food Supercluster secretariat is housed at Olds College with partners from across Canada representing academia, growers and government.
Olds College offers expertise and physical space to budding entrepreneurs until they can move on as independent businesses, said college president Stuart Cullum.
The college works with 50 to 60 companies a year to build their businesses. It also co-operates with SAIT Polytechnic, University of Calgary, Mount Royal University and Bow Valley College in Calgary.
Keith Driver of Driver Projects in Calgary is a local entrepreneur who builds and invests in agriculture projects. He and his partners are preparing to launch projects such as an indoor shrimp farm, a manure pelleting business for fertilizer, insect based protein and animal feed plants. He has worked with Olds College and SAIT to develop some of the ventures.
About $60 million worth of investment has flowed through this company to develop new and unique agriculture businesses.
“Agriculture has been built on innovation and is primed for innovation,” he said.
Olds College straddles the town of Olds and Mountainview County.
The county did not sign the agreement, but Reeve Bruce Beattie said the agribusiness vision is in alignment with the college ambitions.
The county recently allocated $500,000 over five years to support the Werklund Growth Centre at the college. The centre is developing smart agriculture programs, which the county favours.
Businesses may have ambitions to locate in rural municipalities, but they must fit in with local development plans, said Beattie.
“We identified that corridor along Highway Two and 2A for potential development. At the same time, we are trying to meet our commitment to preservation of agricultural land,” he said.
Being north of a major city like Calgary with big business ambitions can be a challenge for nearby rural municipalities who want to control development and protect agriculture land.
“If there is going to be development, let’s keep it in a concentrated area and more preferably where it is not the good quality land,” he said.
Rural municipalities can benefit if agribusinesses want to locate nearby, but the payback can be slow.
“We have got to diversify. We have seen our revenue from the oil sector gradually dropping, and we have to replace that if people want to have the same services in the future,” he said.
“We will work with any proposal that comes along, but we are going to take those considerations into account. We are not going to approve something because it looks like it might generate some revenue for the county.”
