A report prepared for Canada’s cereal grains industry suggests the country’s competitive position in global wheat markets could suffer unless it takes steps to co-ordinate research efforts.
The White Paper on Research Innovation in Cereals was commissioned by Cereals Canada and produced by Stephen Morgan Jones, formerly a regional director with Agriculture Canada’s science and technology branch.
The 45-page report suggests that Canada may be “slipping behind other countries” in cereal innovation and that it should adopt “a world-class science and innovation model” for cereals to ensure that it remains competitive with other major wheat producing and exporting nations.
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It also highlights glaring concerns in Canada’s research environment, including critical human resource gaps at Agriculture Canada and other public research institutions, reductions in research spending at Agriculture Canada, duplication of research efforts across the country, an imbalance between short-term applied research and long-term strategic research projects and ineffective organization of federal research facilities.
The document, acquired by The Western Producer through access to information provisions, contains 12 recommendations:
- A comprehensive list of all cereal research projects.
- A national research project database for wheat.
- A research strategy for cereals, including new mechanisms that can identify national research priorities.
- A human resources plan to address current or anticipated shortfalls in scientific expertise.
- A Canadian Agricultural Research Chair program aimed at attracting world leading wheat scientists to the country.
- New research partnerships with private sector investors and producer groups.
- An examination of Agriculture Canada’s research capacity, including a potential reorganization of the department’s science and technology branch.
- A pilot project that allows non-government groups to manage a federally owned research facility “to test the merits of lowered bureaucracy and its expected relationship with increased productivity, morale and generation of new ideas.”
The report suggests that current policy impediments within Agriculture Canada and bureaucratic decision-making processes and controls on spending at federal research centres “stifle innovation and the generation of new ideas.”
“Successful innovation in science … requires the support mechanisms for science to move quickly once a decision has been made to approve a project,” the report said.
“At the (Agriculture Canada) research centre level, it often takes well over a year to buy a large item of equipment, and staffing for both scientific and support positions often takes up to a year. This causes extreme frustration for both scientific and management (staff) alike.”
The report was presented to Cereals Canada last year and shared with members of Canada’s Grains Round Table, a national committee comprising producer groups, private sector companies, government agencies and Agriculture Canada representatives.
Cam Dahl, president of Cereals Canada, said it was intended to generate discussion and serve as an impetus for positive changes within the industry.
“The white paper should really be viewed as a starting block,” Dahl said.
“The study (was intended) to set national research goals and strategic directions for research that are linked to our customers’ needs … and to start the discussion within the industry.”
Dahl said some recommendations have already been adopted, such as creating an inventory of current wheat research projects and developing a national research database.
Agriculture Canada is leading the work on those projects, which is likely to be completed in the coming months.
Other recommendations aimed at identifying national research priorities and co-ordinating research projects across the country have also been adopted as a priority by members of the Canadian Grains Round Table.
To that end, Cereals Canada and the Canadian International Grains Institute issued a request for proposals last December seeking firms to conduct a comprehensive market scan of Canada’s international wheat customers.
The findings of that initiative will be used to determine future research priorities for the Canadian wheat industry and establish long-term strategic plans, Dahl said.
The market scan is being conducted by British consulting firm LMC International and is expected to be complete before the end of June.
Decisions on whether to pursue other recommendations in the report will be made after key foundational work has been completed in the areas of project cataloguing and databasing, research co-ordination, research priority setting and strategic planning.
The report identified human resources as a significant issue, particularly at public research institutions that continue to face budgetary pressures.
“Critical human resource gaps” exist in multiple areas of public research, it added, which highlights the need for an industry-wide human resource plan.
“AAFC is still the single largest public institution in agricultural research,” the report said.
“However, there has been more focus on staff reductions due to budgetary pressures than replacing scientist positions.”
It also said organizations such as the National Research Council and Agriculture Canada will not likely be able to meet their human resource requirements, adding that “other approaches will be necessary.”
The report also paints an unflattering picture of Agriculture Canada’s research centres, suggesting scientists are often stifled by bureaucratic decision making processes that delay work, restrict essential spending and affect workplace morale.
As well, the paper calls into question the organizational structure of the centres, suggesting that inefficient administration, the lack of strategic plans and poor co-ordination of resources are limiting productivity.
Ottawa employs about 400 scientists at 19 agricultural research centres.
The report said three to five large federal research facilities, each with 60 scientists, may be better suited to meeting the industry’s research objectives.
It said the large centres could focus on strategic or discovery research, while the remaining centres could be designated as research hubs and staffed with fewer scientists who are focused primarily on applied research and field studies.
Contact brian.cross@producer.com
