Richard Phillips, executive director of Grain Growers of Canada, and Lorne Hepworth, president of CropLife Canada, say technology can transform Canada’s agricultural future.
We have seen a number of articles lately about food security, highlighting the rising cost of food and the growing world population.
Boom and bust cycles are nothing new in agriculture, but we are now moving to an era where demand appears to outstrip supply and will do so for the foreseeable future.
The famine in Somalia serves as an unfortunate reminder that we simply must grow more food.
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Farmers are up to the challenge of doing this with the help of plant science technologies. As farmers are out in their fields harvesting, it’s a good time to remember that Canada is on the leading edge of innovative farm practices that help farmers grow more food on less land, using less water.
Canada would need 37 million more acres of farmland to yield the same amount of production it does today if farmers didn’t have access to plant science technologies such as pesticides and plant biotechnology. To put this into perspective, that’s equal to all of the farmed land in Saskatchewan.
Research in plant breeding and biotechnology is working toward genetically improving seeds. This will give farmers access to seeds that grow better in drought conditions or in excessive water, seeds that can grow in high salinity soil that normally do not support healthy growth, and seeds for crops that can better withstand viral and insect diseases.
Among the big benefits of novel seed technology are the advantages to both big and small farmers. Just look at the record of smallholder farmers who have adopted biotechnology: 19 of the 29 countries that are now growing biotech crops are developing countries, and 90 percent of farmers using the technology are smallholder farmers.
Growing biotech crops means even more to them. It’s a stepping stone to a better life when you consider the economic advantages that come from increased yields.
Canadian farmers choose genetically modified options for 90 percent of the canola they plant, 85 percent of the corn and 65 percent of soybeans. This is because of the economic advantages these technologies deliver. Increased production generates $7.9 billion worth of additional economic activity annually for farmers of field, vegetable and fruit crops.
With the help of plant science technologies, Canadian farmers produce enough food to meet our country’s needs and supply more than 150 other nations with Canadian crops. They can do this while at the same time protecting the environment by using innovative farm practices such as conservation tillage.
In 2008, 12 billion kilograms of carbon dioxide was prevented from entering the atmosphere thanks to conservation tillage. With results like this, it’s easy to understand why farmers have adopted these tools: 72 percent of cropland in Canada is farmed using conservation and no-till practices.
Plant science technologies can help produce enough food to feed the world’s population, but more can be done.
Looking at what plant science technologies have already achieved, it’s now important that Canada ask itself what its agricultural future will be. Is it enough to continue to feed the world or do our technologies have the potential to increase the nutritional content in the food we rely on for good health as well as address nutritional deficiencies in developing countries?
Farmers and the plant science industry can play a pivotal and transforming role in Canada’s agricultural future and around the world.
