REGINA – Agriculture Canada has been accused of unfocused research scattered among too many stations.
But federal agriculture minister Ralph Goodale said he hasn’t read the report recently released by the National Advisory Board on Science and Technology.
“The bottom line is before there is a broadside attack launched, we should look at what the stations have accomplished,” Goodale told the research foundation of the Agricultural Institute of Canada during its annual meeting.
“We need to have programs designed for the next century. The research branch has been first off the mark with its cost-shared, collaborative approach.
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“The government, and I personally, believe in research.”
Of its $269-million budget, Agriculture Canada has set aside $10 million to match private-sector funding interested in commercializing Agriculture Canada research.
The advisory board said Agriculture Canada needs to work on exploiting opportunities for adding value to agricultural products.
In answer to criticisms levelled by the advisory board, Brian Morrissey, assistant deputy minister of the research branch of Agriculture Canada, said on the surface it’s difficult not to appear unfocused with 23 different research centres in every region of the country.
Fewer stations
But that’s far fewer than the 43 stations several years ago and the remaining stations – now called centres – are better organized.
Research concentrates on the main enterprises in each region, Morrissey said.
For example, Alberta is the country’s main beef producer and research at the Lacombe, Beaverlodge and Lethbridge stations concentrates on beef or forage production.
This consolidation has allowed Agriculture Canada to keep hub stations in urban centres like Saskatoon and Vancouver, and lesser stations at Scott, Melfort and Agassiz which give researchers the land they need for their experiments and easier access to farmers.
