The federal government last month announced plans to close four agricultural research facilities.
The closures will affect the Cereal Research Centre in Winnipeg, the Dairy and Swine Research Development Centre in Kapuskasing, Ont., the Atlantic Cool Climate Crop Research Centre in St. John’s, Nfld., and the 530 acre Crops and Livestock Research Centre in Nappan, N.S.
The closures stem from an internal examination last year of all Agriculture Canada research facilities that assessed their conditions and their place in the future of federal agricultural research.
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The review also identified the main lab and office facilities in Swift Current, Sask., Winnipeg, Ottawa, Sainte-Foy, Que., Charlottetown and St. John’s as being in poor condition.
Agriculture Canada operates 19 research centres and 37 research sites in 55 locations.
Steve Morgan Jones, head of sustainable research for Agriculture Canada, said the cost of operating the system, with all of its regional diversity, is taking money away from innovative research and putting it into building maintenance for centres that have exceeded their life expectancy.
But closure is not the only response. Some facilities, such as Swift Current’s Semi-Arid Research Centre, will be renewed.
He said some of the facilities no longer provide the benefits to producers that they once did.
The department says regionalism solely for the sake of distributed research will be phased out and the work will be performed in centralized locations where appropriate.
“Basic research can take place anywhere. (Applied) research requires regional facilities and those will be retained,” Morgan Jones said.
His department plans to place some of its researchers and teams within universities and other public systems where possible. This mirrors the agricultural research model used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The work done at the cereal centre in Winnipeg will continue in other labs and facilities in Manitoba and in Swift Current, officials said.
Livestock work at Nappan will shift to the Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Truro, N.S.
Kapuskasing livestock research will be integrated with the University of Guelph New Liskeard research facility in northern Ontario.
Bovine genomics will move from Lethbridge to the University of Alberta.
The department is creating a livestock genetics bank in Saskatoon as part of the existing plant gene resources centre.
Poultry and swine genetics work will continue because the department believes an increased genetic base will be necessary for the long-term security and risk management of those industries, Morgan Jones said.
With 55 percent of the more than 660 science staff eligible to retire in the next decade, the federal government is beginning one of its most active university partnering initiatives.
This fall, Agriculture Canada will fund additional postgraduate research positions at agricultural universities.
“We need to attract new scientists … especially in plant breeding,” Morgan Jones said.
Plans are also under way to create a national program under the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration that would help replace some of the extension and applied functions of Agriculture Canada’s science sector that have been reduced since 1995.
